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Title: First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power by Warren Zimmermann ISBN: 0374179395 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 21 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67
Rating: 5
Summary: All Americans Should Read This!1
Comment: "Americans like to pretend that they have no imperial past. Yet they have shown expansionist tendencies since colonial days." (Zimmermann, 17) So begins chapter 1 of First Great Triumph, Warren Zimmermann's book chronicling the rise of America to world power status and the five men that he credits with that accomplishment. Zimmermann's book states emphatically that contrary to popular belief, America has been an imperialist state since the beginning. Zimmermann seeks to show that not only did the United States seek to create an overseas empire; we did so enthusiastically, rather than reluctantly.
In his book, Zimmermann acknowledges that in many ways the tide of history was pulling America toward the role of imperial power. The American frontier had closed, the Indian wars were over and now the American expansionist impulse needed a new direction the once powerful Spanish empire entered the final period of its inevitable decline. Many influential Americans argued that the expansionist impulse was by definition, a violation of the basic American principles of freedom, and self-determination. Such was not the case with the five heroes men detailed in Zimmermann's book.
Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Elihu Root and John Hay, were all imperialists. In part one of his book, Zimmermann provides biographical sketches that, while brief, give full accounting of each of these men and how each became a driving force in the growth of American foreign policy at that most critical point in history.
Zimmermann draws from over 190 sources, many the works of prominent American historians. He also draws heavily from the words, both written and spoken, of his five central figures. Zimmermann's own experience as a diplomat give him a keen understanding of the relevant geopolitical questions and his qualities as a writer provide the reader with a very engaging account of these men and their times.
Zimmerman's narrative provides a clear path for the reader to follow to understanding his central theme. The biographies contained in the first part of the book, use the words and actions of the central characters to prove his point. From their early lives, each of the five seems destined to play some role in the growth of the American nation. The way that Zimmerman weaves their stories together, illustrates the fact that in reality, very little of the American rise to global power was accidental.
Rating: 5
Summary: History at Its Best!
Comment: This is history at its best -- well written, thoroughly researched, and interesting to read. The principle characters come alive. It's an ambitious undertaking, too, to describe this chapter in our history. Zimmermann not only discusses the emergence of the United States onto the world scene as a major player, but also interweaves five amazing men: John Hay, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Theodore Roosevelt. I was familiar with them, but he makes them real. You get into their point of view, their successes and foibles, and their backgrounds and their struggles.
I had wanted to read about World War I and the formation of the Arab states as we know them today. Paris 1919 would be a good start. I decided to read this first, though, as a run-in to Paris 1919. What I discovered is that not only did this period posture the US as a world player, but also the striking similarity between the Spanish-American War and the War in Iraq. More about that later.
Zimmermann begins by describing the lives, philosophies, and contributions of these five men whose contributions were pivotal. These are not definitive biographies, to be sure, but rather a series of monographs that are delightful in their brevity and depth. The rest of the book provides an excellent history of the war with Spain -- going into detail about Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines -- along with our seizure of Guam and Hawaii. Along the way he touches on a wide variety of other persons, US and foreign.
The only downside is the lack of maps. They would help substantially, but their absence does not unduly detract from the strengths of the book. For example, there is fascinating detail regarding treaty negotiations with Spain and the debate within the US Senate for ratification. Zimmermann even gives insight into personalities in the Spanish ruling circles and how they affected Spanish actions.
There were a variety of reasons for the US to expand its thinking past its ocean boundaries. Quoting Mahan, "[our] growing production, public sentiment, a geographic position between two old worlds and two oceans, the growth of European colonies in the Pacific, the rise of Japan, and the peopling of the American West with men favoring a strong foreign policy" (115).
I always thought imperialism was driven more by economic motives (markets) and diplomatic and military motives (national power). Imperialism is not necessarily aimed just at less developed societies, but also between Western and regional powers. Still, I can see Zimmermann's point when he says, "Such a cultural atmosphere was extremely conducive to imperialist initiatives, because imperialism -- like Anglo-Saxonism, social Darwinism, and manifest destiny -- was also based on the principle of racial inequality" (37). Maybe "also" is the key word. Having said that, he also makes the point, "Three of America's earlier wars had been fought for specific principles: political liberty in 1776, freedom of the seas in 1812, and preservation of the Union in 1861. The Spanish-American War was the first in which Americans were activated in large part by the way a foreign government treated its subjects" (251).
This is where Zimmermann's analysis gets quite interesting for today's environment. Much has been made recently comparing the War in Iraq and where it may lead us to Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. In reading this book you come to find out that the true comparison is the Spanish-American War. The parallels are numerous. Here are a few examples:
"...left unresolved [was] the crucial issue of who would inherit Cuba from Spain. Would it be the United States or the Cuban people? That fatal ambiguity has scarred American relations with Cuba ever since" (264).
"The Spanish had courage, but not the kind of courage that leads to victory" (283).
"If we turn this war, which was heralded to the world as a war of humanity, in any sense into a war of conquest, we shall forever forfeit the confidence of mankind" (337).
"The first years of American occupation of the Philippines were marked by full-scale war...'The people whom we liberated down there have turned against us.' From the outbreak of violence...it took the US more than three years to subdue what was to the Americans an insurrection and to the Filipinos a war for independence. At its height the American troop presence constituted three-quarters of the entire US Army. Casualties on both sides far exceeded the killed and wounded in the three weeks of fighting in Cuba." (386)
"'To leave the islands at this time would mean that they would fall into a welter of murderous anarchy. Such dereliction of duty on our part would be a crime against humanity.'" (404)
Zimmermann's insights go on and on. There is much that is different between then and now, but it's clear that the Spanish-American War has much for us to learn in our current foreign paths.
Zimmermann sums up his message of his book the best. "In retrospect, the twentieth century, for all the brilliance of its intellectual and technological accomplishments, was a time of violence and horror unprecedented in world history...The threat posed by Hitler's Germany became the major international preoccupation from 1933 until the German defeat in 1945. The threat of Stalin's Russia succeeded it as the main concern. Neither challenge could have been dealt with successfully without the full engagement of the US. The imperial initiation at the end of the nineteenth century had prepared Americans for the great power role that, in the twentieth century, only they could play." (482)
This is one of the best accounts of US history that I've read. I'd give it six stars if I could.
Rating: 4
Summary: Timely reminder of our imperial past ... and present
Comment: A century after the events Warren Zimmerman describes, questions of "American empire" are once again being debated. That makes this book a particularly timely and instructive one.
The book's structure has been described in many of these reviews: five biographies, about 40 pages each, and then a longer section weaving together the issues and events of these men's lives into the large drama of the growth of American imperialism. Though the book's length is certainly not unmanageable -- in fact, it would be hard to do this topic justice in a much smaller book -- one drawback of frontloading the biographies is that some of the details of the men's lives tend to be forgotten by the time they reappear later on in the narrative. Mahan, in particular, appears only sporadically in the second half of the book, although his influence on the other men can still be felt.
Zimmerman focuses his narrative, obviously, on these five men and their influence on their nation and the world. The author perhaps agrees with Henry Cabot Lodge, whom he quotes on page 184 as writing, "The personal qualities and individual abilities of public men ... make the history and determine the fate of nations" (ellipses in original). This "methodological individualist" tack is a refreshing approach in a discipline that these days is so mired in "social movements" and "impersonal forces" that the critical -- even indispensable -- roles of individual men and women is often forgotten. While America may yet have become an imperial power without these five men, Zimmerman makes a strong case that Roosevelt, Mahan, Lodge, Root, and Hay, by their own will, channeled America's might and power in the direction of their choosing. It's a direction we're still, by and large, moving today.
While the five biographies in the first half of the book are all useful, insightful, and well written, they're really mostly prologue. It's the second half where most of the action, drama, and even excitement can be found. Zimmerman does a fine job of charting the drive for empire, the various obstacles that our five subjects had to overcome, and the long-term consequences of it all.
Zimmerman doesn't play favorites. Although his approach to the rise of empire is generally positive, it is balanced and nonjudgmental: his discussion of the annexation of Hawai`i, for example, makes it clear that the coup against the native monarchy was little more than theft. At the same time, though, he does not idealize the pre-colonial era or downplay that monarchy's undeniable corruption. He is clear-eyed about the costs of empire-building, doesn't shy from naming certain American actions in Cuba and the Philippines the "atrocities" they were, charts successes and failures honestly, and makes painfully clear the disconnect between America's high-minded rhetoric and our often base conduct. In what may be the nearest our author comes to outright denunciation, he is very hard on Theodore Roosevelt's "spurious euphoria" about the glories of war and TR's general bloodthirstiness (pp. 416-7).
I would have liked to see a little more discussion of the opposition to war mounted by the "goo-goos," though Zimmerman's discussion, as far as it goes, is sound. This ground has also been covered well by Robert Beisner's "Twelve Against Empire" (1968), a work I recommend and which is listed in Zimmerman's bibliography.
Even today, there seems to be reluctance in some quarters to see the United States as an imperial power. But we became one a century ago, and remain one today. While our intentions, and certainly our rhetoric, may have been (and be) more idealistic than those of other empires, the real-world consequences have been largely the same. As an introduction to how and why the American empire was born, a primer to how we got to where we are today, and a reminder of the power individuals have to shape the world, Zimmerman's "First Great Triumph" is not to be missed.
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Title: Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret Olwen Macmillan, Richard Holbrooke ISBN: 0375508260 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power by Niall Ferguson ISBN: 0465023282 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order by Robert Kagan ISBN: 1400040930 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman ISBN: 0393051447 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945 by Michael R. Beschloss ISBN: 0684810271 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 22 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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