The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 / Edition 1

by Lester D. Langley

Overview

The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 offers a sweeping panorama of America's tropical empire in the age spanned by the two Roosevelts and a detailed narrative of U.S. military intervention in the Caribbean and Mexico. In this new edition, Professor Langley provides an updated introduction, placing the scholarship in current historical context.

From the perspective of the Americans involved, the empire carved out by the banana warriors was a domain of bickering Latin American politicians, warring tropical countries, and lawless societies that the American military had been dispatched to police and tutor. Beginning with the Cuban experience, Langley examines the motives and consequences of two military occupations and the impact of those interventions on a professedly antimilitaristic American government and on its colonial agents in the Caribbean, the American military. The result of the Cuban experience, Langley argues, was reinforcement of the view that the American people did not readily accept prolonged military occupation of Caribbean countries.

In Nicaragua and Mexico, from 1909 to 1915, where economic and diplomatic pressures failed to bring the results desired in Washington, the American military became the political arbiters; in Hispaniola, bluejackets and marines took on the task of civilizing the tropics. In the late 1920s, with an imperial force largely of marines, the American military waged its last banana war in Nicaragua against a guerrilla leader named Augusto C. Sandino.

Langley not only narrates the history of America's tropical empire, but fleshes out the personalities of this imperial era, including Leonard Wood and Fred Funston, U.S. Army, who left their mark on Cuba and Vera Cruz; William F. Fullam and William Banks Caperton, U.S. Navy, who carried out their missions imbued with old-school beliefs about their role as policemen in disorderly places; Smedley Butler and L.W.T. Waller, Sr., U.S.M.C., who left the most lasting imprint of A

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780842050470
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/01/2001
Series:	Latin American Silhouettes
Edition description:	REVISED
Pages:	265
Sales rank:	541,211
Product dimensions:	6.16(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Lester D. Langley is the author of numerous books about the relationship of the United States with Latin America and the Caribbean. He also serves as general editor of the University of Georgia Press Series, "The United States and the Americas."

Table of Contents

Part 1 I The Cuban Experience Chapter 2 Leonard Wood and the White Man's Burden Chapter 3 TR and the Use of Force Chapter 4 The Second Cuban Intervention, 1906 Chapter 5 Cuba Occupied Part 6 II Teach them to Elect Good Men Chapter 7 The Nicaraguan Menace Chapter 8 The Nicaraguan War, 1910–1912 Chapter 9 The Mexican Crisis Chapter 10 Veracruz Chapter 11 The Rulers of Veracruz Part 12 III Civilizing the Tropics Chapter 13 Turbulent Hispaniola Chapter 14 The Pacification of Hispaniola: 1 Chapter 15 The Pacification of Hispaniola: 2 Part 16 IV The Last Banana War Chapter 17 Interregnum, 1921–1925 Chapter 18 The Second Nicaraguan Civil War, 1925–1927 Chapter 19 The Sandino Chase Chapter 20 The Last Banana War

Editorial Reviews

In The Banana Wars, Lester D. Langley examines the activities of the U.S. armed forces in the Caribbean between 1900 and 1934. Liberally sprinkled with anecdotes and colorful details, the narrative is readable. .. and the book gives a lively sense of who its actors were and what they did.

American Historical Review

The Banana Wars is not only good history, it is also a document of some significance. It introduces into the body of liberal historiography an analysis of American hegemony in the Caribbean derived from a framework of imperialism. Langley moves the issue of American imperialism beyond the realm of the problematical and polemical to a place of prominence in mainstream literature.

Pacific Historical Review

A well-researched survey of U.S. diplomatic and military intervention in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and NIcaragua between 1900 and 1934.. .. Langley's volume is a much-needed work on this area.

Choice Reviews

Brings a sharper focus to the military's role in U.S. foreign policy in the early twentieth century.

Military Review

Recounting the history of the American 'empire' in the Caribbean Basin, the author stresses that the United States failed not so much because of the use of force (the whoe undertaking was rather reluctant at best), but because of cultural and psychological realities.

Foreign Affairs

This book not only provides a pithy review of American intentions and heavy-handedness, it explains how a failed interventionist policy led to our propensity to back national dictators who promised to maintain order and respect for American lives and property. The United States did not fail because it suffered from indecisiveness or a lack or ardor, but because it could not effectively rule such conquered places.

Foreign Service Journal

We are bombarded today by ill-founded polemics written by instant specialists on the Central American Caribbean areas, and—perhaps needlessly—I would stress that Langley's work is careful and it is fair. It will make the handiest of supplemental readings.

Hispanic American Historical Review

The Banana Wars is not only good history, it is also a document of some significance. It introduces into the body of liberal historiography an analysis of American hegemony in the Caribbean derived from a framework of imperialism. Langley moves the issue of American imperialism beyond the realm of the problematical and polemical to a place of prominence in mainstream literature.

A well-researched survey of U.S. diplomatic and military intervention in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and NIcaragua between 1900 and 1934. . . . Langley's volume is a much-needed work on this area.

Brings a sharper focus to the military's role in U.S. foreign policy in the early twentieth century.

In The Banana Wars, Lester D. Langley examines the activities of the U.S. armed forces in the Caribbean between 1900 and 1934. Liberally sprinkled with anecdotes and colorful details, the narrative is readable . . . and the book gives a lively sense of who its actors were and what they did.

Recounting the history of the American 'empire' in the Caribbean Basin, the author stresses that the United States failed not so much because of the use of force (the whoe undertaking was rather reluctant at best), but because of cultural and psychological realities.

This book not only provides a pithy review of American intentions and heavy-handedness, it explains how a failed interventionist policy led to our propensity to back national dictators who promised to maintain order and respect for American lives and property. The United States did not fail because it suffered from indecisiveness or a lack or ardor, but because it could not effectively rule such conquered places.

We are bombarded today by ill-founded polemics written by instant specialists on the Central American Caribbean areas, and-perhaps needlessly-I would stress that Langley's work is careful and it is fair. It will make the handiest of supplemental readings.

From the Publisher

A well-researched survey of U.S. diplomatic and military intervention in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and NIcaragua between 1900 and 1934.. .. Langley's volume is a much-needed work on this area.

Choice

A well-researched survey of U.S. diplomatic and military intervention in Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and NIcaragua between 1900 and 1934.. .. Langley's volume is a much-needed work on this area.

CHOICE

Langley (formerly of the U. of Georgia history department) examines the history of U.S. imperial ambitions in the Caribbean during the period of time that gave birth to the term "gunboat diplomacy." Focusing on the actions of political leaders and military planners, suggests that the U.S. was quite successful as conquerors, but miserably unsuccessful as rulers of the conquered. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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