War Lovers : Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire 1898

by Thomas, Evan

• ISBN13: 9780316085113
• ISBN10: 0316085111
• Edition: Large
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-27
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Summary

On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor. Although there was no evidence that the Spanish were responsible, yellow newspapers such as William Randolph Hearst'sNew York Journalwhipped Americans into frenzy by claiming that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship. Soon after, the blandly handsome and easily influenced President McKinley declared war, sending troops not only to Cuba but also to the Philippines, Spain's sprawling colony on the other side of the world. As Evan Thomas reveals in his rip-roaring history of those times, the hunger for war had begun years earlier. Depressed by the "closing" of the Western frontier and embracing theories of social Darwinism, a group of warmongers that included a young Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge agitated loudly and incessantly that the United States exert its influence across the seas. These hawks would transform American foreign policy and, when Teddy ascended to the presidency, commence with a devastating war without reason, concocted within the White House--a bloody conflict that would come at tremendous cost. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, THE WAR LOVERS is the story of six men at the center of a transforming event in U.S. history: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, McKinley, William James, and Thomas Reed, and confirms once more than Evan Thomas is a popular historian of the first rank.

Author Biography

Evan Thomas has been the Assistant Managing Editor of Newsweek since 1991. He is the bestselling author of six works of nonfiction: Sea of Thunder, John Paul Jones, Robert Kennedy, The Very Best Men, The Man to See, and The Wise Men. He lives with his wife and children in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
Dreaming of Father	p. 17
The Noble Hacks	p. 37
Manifest Destiny	p. 63
The Large Policy	p. 77
The Individualist	p. 92
Selling Papers	p. 115
The Czar	p. 135
The Pleasant Gang	p. 153
Aux Barricades!	p. 168
Kinds of Courage	p. 193
Romance	p. 213
The Stolen Letter	p. 239
Remember the Maine	p. 263
The Trophies of Miltiades	p. 290
Hot Time	p. 314
The Rocking-Chair Period	p. 340
Hurrying to Empire	p. 363
Ambush	p. 381
The Crowded Hour	p. 400
Matters of Honor	p. 424
Spoils of War	p. 449
A Certain Blindness	p. 473
Never Ending	p. 501
Acknowledgments	p. 521
Notes	p. 525
Bibliography	p. 569
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