The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power

"Anyone who wants to understand why America has permanently entered a new era in international relations must read [this book].... Vividly written and thoroughly researched." --Los Angeles Times
America's "small wars," "imperial war," or, as the Pentagon now terms them, "low-intensity conflicts," have played an essential but little-appreciated role in its growth as a world power. Beginning with Jefferson's expedition against the Barbary pirates, Max Boot tells the exciting stories of our sometimes minor but often bloody landings in Samoa, the Philippines, China, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia, and elsewhere. Along the way he sketches colorful portraits of little-known military heroes such as Stephen Decatur, "Fighting Fred" Funston, and Smedly Butler.
This revised and updated edition of Boot's compellingly readable history of the forgotten wars that helped promote America's rise in the lst two centuries includes a wealth of new material, including a chapter on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a new afterword on the lessons of the post-9/11 world.

• Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present
• Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam: Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counter Insurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam
• The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam
• War Made New: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World
• Resisting Rebellion: The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency
• Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (Psi Classics of the Counterinsurgency Era)
• The American Military Tradition: From Colonial Times to the Present
• Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits: How Masters of Irregular Warfare Have Shaped Our World
• The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right
• The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World