From the Publisher
Stephen Kinzer’s The True Flag is a marvelous and timely look at the rise of American imperialism at the turn of the twentieth century. All the big power players of the era – Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain among them – are analyzed cogently as intellectuals of great merit. An outstanding book!”
—Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America and professor of history, Rice University
“Even in the pages of a novel, it would be impossible to find more extraordinary characters than Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. That these two men locked horns over one of the most fundamental issues facing a young nation is a stunning turn of events, one that Stephen Kinzer, through meticulous research and masterful writing, has turned into a fascinating, fast-paced narrative.”
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt, Destiny of the Republic, and Hero of the Empire
“At a moment when Americans are hotly debating their country’s role in the world, Stephen Kinzer takes us back to the origins of the modern debate. His account of the battle between imperialists and anti-imperialists at the end of the nineteenth century is riveting, uplifting, dismaying—and as timely as can be.”
—H. W. Brands, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and author of The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
“In The True Flag, Stephen Kinzer gives us much more than the story of the birth of American dominion. He shows why we Americans were attracted to empire, how we have nurtured it to maturity, and what our choices are now. I thank him for helping me better understand how America acts in the world today.”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers, The Imperial Cruise, and The China Mirage
“Stephen Kinzer’s lively and incisive history takes us back more than a century to a fateful turning point: the moment when the United States first assumed the right to overthrow or build up regimes in distant parts of the globe. I hope American leaders will read this book, and think long and hard about the warning it sounds." —Adam Hochschild, author of Spain in Our Hearts and King Leopold’s Ghost
MARCH 2017 - AudioFile
Robert Petkoff presents this account of our nation’s rise to the status of a world power in the late 1890s with straightforward style. Kinzer’s work describes the heated debates between those who pushed for an American empire and those who were just as vehement in opposing American expansionism. Though the circumstances have changed, the arguments are still recognizable and resonant in our current political environment. Petkoff employs his baritone voice in a somewhat understated delivery. This is a reading rather than a performance—and seems more academic than entertaining in essence. Nonetheless, Petkoff’s voice is clear, and his narration overall makes for a pleasant listening experience. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2016-10-11
A timely work on the vociferous sides taken over the Spanish-American War of 1898—and how that history relates to the ongoing debate regarding American imperialism.In this engaging, well-focused history, Kinzer (The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World, 2013, etc.), a former New York Times bureau chief in Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua and Boston Globe Latin America correspondent, plunges into the heated conversations in Washington and the tabloids over American expansionist designs on Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam at the turn of the 19th century. During a "ravenous fifty-five day spasm" in the summer of 1898, the United States "asserted control" over these far-flung nations—totaling 11 million people—by handily defeating the Spanish fleet and thus acquiring rather suddenly an overseas empire. Was this even constitutional, and had not founder George Washington himself warned against "the mischiefs of foreign intrigue"? Using the excerpts of speeches and editorials, Kinzer skillfully extracts an immediate sense of the heated debate that gripped the country, centering around the jingoist triumvirate of Massachusetts Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, the consummate Washington insider; Theodore Roosevelt, who became Assistant Secretary of the Navy and then vice president; and the powerful publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, proprietor of the New York Journal. While the first two gave powerful, persuasive speeches on the need to extend "national authority over alien communities" and offer the U.S. urgent new markets, Hearst acted as the "mighty megaphone" for the imperialist message, especially when the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor gave the casus belli to attack Spain. Rather late in the game, Mark Twain, who was traveling abroad and saw firsthand President William McKinley's racist American policy of "benevolent assimilation," emerged as an effective advocate for anti-imperialism, as did Andrew Carnegie and (conflictedly) William Jennings Bryan. In the last chapter, Kinzer astutely brings the debate from the turn of the century to the present. A tremendously elucidating book that should be required reading for civics courses.
