Volume 49, Number 15 · October 10, 2002
Is There a Case for Little Wars?
By Brian Urquhart
The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power
by Max Boot
Basic Books, 428 pp., $30.00
The first quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of high adventure for the sailors and soldiers of Europe and America. The officers were fighting leaders, the men tough, inured to hardship, and in need of a job. It took at least three months—usually more—for even the simplest orders to arrive from home. The British Royal Navy was preeminent in this time of naval bravado, with the United States an avid junior partner rapidly catching up. The rest of the world was still, for the most part, unprepared to resist the determination, fighting spirit, and technological superiority of these supremely self-confident white men.
Review, 3919 words
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