The True Flag; Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire

Kinzer, Stephen

ISBN 10: 1627792163 / ISBN 13: 9781627792165

Published by Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2017

About this Item

[12], 306, [2] pages. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Signed by the author on the title page. Stephen Kinzer (born August 4, 1951) is an American author, journalist and academic. He was a New York Times correspondent, has published several books, and currently writes for several newspapers and news agencies. During the 1980s Kinzer covered revolution and social upheaval in Central America, as well as published his first book, Bitter Fruit, about military coups and destabilization in Guatemala during the 1950s. In 1990, The New York Times appointed Kinzer as the head its Berlin bureau, from which he covered Eastern and Central Europe as they emerged from Soviet rule. He has written several non-fiction books about Turkey, Central America, Iran, the US overthrow of foreign governments from the late 19th century to the present, as well as Rwanda's recovery from genocide. Derived from a Kirkus review: A timely work on the Spanish-American War of 1898-and how that history relates to the ongoing debate regarding American imperialism. In this well-focused history, Kinzer 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. Kinzer skillfully presents an immediate sense of the heated debate that gripped the country, centering around the jingoist triumvirate of Massachusetts Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, the Washington insider; Theodore Roosevelt; and the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. While the first two gave powerful, persuasive speeches, Hearst acted as the "mighty megaphone" for the imperialist message, especially when the sinking of the USS Maine gave the casus belli. Twain emerged as an effective advocate for anti-imperialism, as did Andrew Carnegie. Kinzer also brings the debate from the turn of the century to the present. First Edition [Stated], Second Printing [Stated]. Seller Inventory # 78550

Bibliographic Details

Title: The True Flag; Theodore Roosevelt, Mark ...

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company, New York

Publication Date: 2017

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very good

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

The bestselling author of Overthrow and The Brothers brings to life the forgotten political debate that set America’s interventionist course in the world for the twentieth century and beyond.

How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat―until the cycle begins again.

No matter how often we debate this question, none of what we say is original. Every argument is a pale shadow of the first and greatest debate, which erupted more than a century ago. Its themes resurface every time Americans argue whether to intervene in a foreign country.

Revealing a piece of forgotten history, Stephen Kinzer transports us to the dawn of the twentieth century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands. That prospect thrilled some Americans. It horrified others. Their debate gripped the nation.

The country’s best-known political and intellectual leaders took sides. Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Randolph Hearst pushed for imperial expansion; Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and Andrew Carnegie preached restraint. Only once before―in the period when the United States was founded―have so many brilliant Americans so eloquently debated a question so fraught with meaning for all humanity.

All Americans, regardless of political perspective, can take inspiration from the titans who faced off in this epic confrontation. Their words are amazingly current. Every argument over America’s role in the world grows from this one. It all starts here.

About the Author:

Stephen Kinzer is the author of The Brothers, Reset, Overthrow, All the Shah’s Men, and other books. An award-winning foreign correspondent, he served as The New York Times’s bureau chief in Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua and as The Boston Globe’s Latin America correspondent. He is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and writes a column on world affairs for The Boston Globe. He lives in Boston.