An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain Over Cuba, 1895-1898
The Spanish-American War of 1898 has not received nearly as much detailed study as other American wars. Compared with such great conflicts as the Civil War and World War I, this small, swift war, with few casualties and an unambiguous conclusion, seemed rather simple. Typically, it has been portrayed as a symbolic struggle between a declining European power and the United States, whose foreign policy would dominate the 20th century. Offner (history, Shippensburg Univ.) does his readers a great service by probing beyond easy generalizations and demonstrating the intricate diplomatic efforts used to avoid military conflict. To his credit, he also explores the perspectives of the Spanish and the Cubans, having done prodigious research in international archives. The tangled relationships that Offner reveals between internal politics and foreign relations make the war seem not quite so simple and much more worthy of study. A fascinating and relevant work in the wake of the recent Persian Gulf War, another war that lasted only a few months.- Charles K. Piehl, Mankato State Univ., Minn.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.