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118 reviews for:
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire
Jonathan M. Katz
4.3 AVERAGE
118 reviews for:
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire
Jonathan M. Katz
4.3 AVERAGE
Heel erg interessant boek! Het volgt Smedley Butler. Een marinier die betrokken is geweest bij zo’n beetje alle imperialistische invasies van Amerika in het begin van de 20e eeuw. Van Cuba tot China, de Filipijnen tot Nicaragua. Hij heeft talloze regering helpen omver werpen, militaristische dictators geholpen en persoonlijk basically slavernij overzien. En dat alles voor het grootkapitaal. Hij was een “racketeer for capitalism”. En wat dit boek zo fascinerend maakt is dat die laatste quote van Butler zelf kwam. Hij werd verder in z’n leven steeds meer anti-oorlog, en heeft o.a. pogingen gedaan om een fascistische coup te voorkomen. Een fascinerend portret van een heel ingewikkeld persoon die niet schuwt om bijvoorbeeld z’n racisme te benoemen, maar ook zijn positieve kanten beschrijft. Ondertussen is het ook een reisverslag door de landen waar Butler heeft gevochten, een geschiedenisboek en een verslag van de impact van imperialisme. Onderwerpen waar ik weinig van wist, en nu toch echt een stuk meer.
I don’t usually write reviews here but I won this in a giveaway so I feel semi-obligated to write one.
Going in I knew about Smedley Butler’s “war is a racket” pamphlet and a little bit of the Haiti story, having recently run through the Revolutions podcast series of Haiti.
Butler is sort of a Forrest Gump of American imperialism 1900-1930, so his biography gives you a nice overview of a bunch of American military adventurism that you might not have learned in school.
The format goes back and forth between biography and a framing device where the author follows in Butler’s footsteps. I was skeptical of the author including himself but he mostly uses the device to let people from the areas Butler was parading around speak about the legacy of American intervention. These are the best parts and there are moving scenes of modern remembrances of atrocities described in the book.
Further/related reading: Greg Grandin’s End of the Myth and this blog post: https://patrickwyman.substack.com/p/imperial-wars-always-come-home
Going in I knew about Smedley Butler’s “war is a racket” pamphlet and a little bit of the Haiti story, having recently run through the Revolutions podcast series of Haiti.
Butler is sort of a Forrest Gump of American imperialism 1900-1930, so his biography gives you a nice overview of a bunch of American military adventurism that you might not have learned in school.
The format goes back and forth between biography and a framing device where the author follows in Butler’s footsteps. I was skeptical of the author including himself but he mostly uses the device to let people from the areas Butler was parading around speak about the legacy of American intervention. These are the best parts and there are moving scenes of modern remembrances of atrocities described in the book.
Further/related reading: Greg Grandin’s End of the Myth and this blog post: https://patrickwyman.substack.com/p/imperial-wars-always-come-home
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I wish I had known about this book when I taught US history. You could use it as a text to build a course around but, more so as a resource for the large number of wars the US fought in the 19th and 20th centuries to overturn democracies in the name of capitalism.
I thought this book would be a takedown of Smedley Butler, who is revered among marines but, it frequently uses his own thoughts on the meaning of the wars he raged to make its point. Smedly Butler acknowledged he was a Gangster of Capitalism. He might not be proud of this book but, if it helps the US course-correct away from this type of intervention he would be happy nonetheless.
I thought this book would be a takedown of Smedley Butler, who is revered among marines but, it frequently uses his own thoughts on the meaning of the wars he raged to make its point. Smedly Butler acknowledged he was a Gangster of Capitalism. He might not be proud of this book but, if it helps the US course-correct away from this type of intervention he would be happy nonetheless.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Solid book overall. I think reason I didn't give it five stars is that it had a hard time mixing the overall themes with the focus Smedley Butler. I felt like I lost Smedley Butler's life in the middle, and did not get a true sense of character. I also think the travel log and and bringing to present did not always add much to me. It felt like the book was a mixture of biography with a Newspaper Series, and sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. The chapters on the Philippines and the bell, and also the Business Plot was my favorites and I think its because they were the two chapters that combined both aspects.