The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934

by Lester D. Langley

Book Overview

The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898-1934 offers a sweeping panorama of America's tropical empire in the age spanned by the two Roosevelts and a detailed narrative of U.S. military intervention in the Caribbean and Mexico. In this new edition, Professor Langley provides an updated introduction, placing the scholarship in current historical context.

From the perspective of the Americans involved, the empire carved...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0842050477
• ISBN13: 9780842050470
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A must read, least we repeat our mistakes

As a nation at war with a country we don't understand, we all need to read this book as well as Mr. Langley's other book "Banana Men". Forget your political ideology and read a well documented account of how the United states tries to shape Central America in their own image, gets bored with it and spawns the conflicts in the 1980s. Mr. Langley gives a quick paced vivid account of the intervention in Central America and the Caribbean. He tells the story of some of the most flamboyant characters in American history. From Chesty Puller stopping a riot by jumping on a crate with his Thompson machine guns blazing to the last words of the diplomat in Haiti asking why the Haitians wanted the Americans out. The Haitian official's statement was to the effect of "Yes, our country is a mess, but it's our mess, Please leave". Read this book it will give you a great perspective about good intentions and how they can go wrong when you don't understand the people you are trying to "help". Could go a long way in understanding our current intervention.