The War With Spain in 1898

Rating:
Summary: best single volume history of the war
Review: A reader seeking to understand the causes and consequences of the War of 1898 would do well to begin with Trask's analysis. The volume is a broad overview of a pivotal moment in the development of U.S. foreign policy, but it manages to preserve clarity and insight despite its scope. It sharply undermines the standard revisionist interpretation of American behavior, forwarded for example by Perez and Foner, which holds that the United States engaged Spain in a war over Cuba in order to keep the island for itself. It does so by convincingly demonstrating that domestic politics in the United States and Spain set the two nations on a collision course with each other (but see Offner for the best presentation of these politics), although it does not say enough about how racism allowed the United States to ignore the legitimacy of Cuba's claims to independence. It mostly succeeds by showing how simple accidents of history, such as the de Lome letter, the mysterious explosion of the Maine, and the conquest of the Philippines by the United States (which was undertaken for reasons related to basic military strategy, not sinister imperial ambitions) prodded events along and restricted the legitimate options available to policymakers. In retrospect, a war entered into for ostensibly humanitarian reasons but resulting in a global empire for America seems obviously to have been the product of selfish, two-faced conspirators. As Trask's thoroughly documented and ably argued narrative reveals, however, sometimes intellectually coherent interpretations say more about the interpreter than the events themselves. A loaded moment in the history of the United States, Spain, Cuba, and the Philippines, the War of 1898 has generated almost as many interpretations as authors. For the best and least biased account of this episode, consult Trask.