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msartor53's review
4.0
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.
estragal's review
5.0
A phenomenal journey following the luckiest and unluckiest soldier during the most important developmental period of American Empire. Katz perfectly weaves Smedleys journey, his own adventure a century later, and the broader tale of American imperialism
jakewritesbooks's review
5.0
An excellent read and an infuriating read. Worth all five stars. And like Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction and Ackerman’s Reign of Terror, you’re guaranteed to be peeved on every page.
I knew the United States had a colonizing history dating back, well really to its foundation through the US-Mexican War of the 1840s, but more specifically from the end of the 19th century onwards. I knew that we captured many islands in the Caribbean and Pacific respectively, even if I didn’t know the hows-and-whys.
Jonathan M. Katz does a great job filling in the hows and whys through the life of Smedley Butler, a well-regarded Marine commander who led many of the bloody missions.
This book functions in three specific ways and I’m amazed that Katz melded them together so well: a journey of Butler’s imperialist activities on behalf of the United States, a mini-history of each and every conquered or disrupted land, and a travelogue by the author to the present day locations of past US offenses to glean the pain they hath wrought.
The result is a readable, digestible, enlightening and angering work of quality narrative non-fiction.
We can have our disagreements on politics and even American history to a degree. That’s all well and good. What cannot be argued is the atrocities our country committed in the name of racial supremacy and financial dominance. Katz extracts the economics of every invasion: what banks and companies stood to benefit from every war, how Butler realized even from a young age that he was being used (but still continued to fight) and how even in interventions like the 1920s one in China, how he was there for no other reason than to protect US interests (the Marines literally defended the Standard Oil fields).
Butler later took a publicly repentant tone, whose cries for peace and pacifism were poorly timed to be just before WWII (else they may be better remembered). He is critical of Butler’s violence and racism but he doesn’t make Butler the straw man, rather the through line. If it wasn’t Butler, it’d have been someone else. That doesn’t exculpate Butler but it also doesn’t make him the sole driving force.
This is an important story, well-told and should be read by every resident of the United States.
I knew the United States had a colonizing history dating back, well really to its foundation through the US-Mexican War of the 1840s, but more specifically from the end of the 19th century onwards. I knew that we captured many islands in the Caribbean and Pacific respectively, even if I didn’t know the hows-and-whys.
Jonathan M. Katz does a great job filling in the hows and whys through the life of Smedley Butler, a well-regarded Marine commander who led many of the bloody missions.
This book functions in three specific ways and I’m amazed that Katz melded them together so well: a journey of Butler’s imperialist activities on behalf of the United States, a mini-history of each and every conquered or disrupted land, and a travelogue by the author to the present day locations of past US offenses to glean the pain they hath wrought.
The result is a readable, digestible, enlightening and angering work of quality narrative non-fiction.
We can have our disagreements on politics and even American history to a degree. That’s all well and good. What cannot be argued is the atrocities our country committed in the name of racial supremacy and financial dominance. Katz extracts the economics of every invasion: what banks and companies stood to benefit from every war, how Butler realized even from a young age that he was being used (but still continued to fight) and how even in interventions like the 1920s one in China, how he was there for no other reason than to protect US interests (the Marines literally defended the Standard Oil fields).
Butler later took a publicly repentant tone, whose cries for peace and pacifism were poorly timed to be just before WWII (else they may be better remembered). He is critical of Butler’s violence and racism but he doesn’t make Butler the straw man, rather the through line. If it wasn’t Butler, it’d have been someone else. That doesn’t exculpate Butler but it also doesn’t make him the sole driving force.
This is an important story, well-told and should be read by every resident of the United States.
liberrydude's review
4.0
Having served 30 years in the Marines, the last five as a historian, I thought I knew most of Butler’s story. I was wrong. Katz does a brilliant job of telling his story as the enforcer of American imperialism. As much as it is biographical it is a concise history of American imperialism for five decades as well.
I think the most startling and appalling revelation for me was the “heist” by Marines of the Haitian Bank’s coffers and subsequent transfer to Wall Street. This precipitated a political crisis and civil chaos which the United Stated used as a pretext to invade and further control the people and the resources of Haiti.
As for Butler’s record I find it not worthy of emulation or approbation. He’s basically a rich kid from Philadelphia who never completed high school but was intoxicated by going off to the Spanish American War before he was of age. His father was a congressman who later rose to chairman of the then equivalent of our current Armed Services Committee. He missed combat in Cuba but caught some action in the Philippines. More combat in China during the Boxer Rebellion. I was appalled at the looting. He also caught typhoid and was sidelined medically afterwards.
He is assigned to Subic Bay as a newlywed but has a nervous breakdown while tasked with installing gun emplacements. He takes a leave of absence from the Corps and works managing a coal mine in West Virginia. That’s not something that would happen today. He’s promoted to major and is assigned to the Canal Zone while the canal is being constructed. Then to Nicaragua. Involved in the Mexican Revolution with American landing at Vera Cruz where he was awarded the MOH.
Butler was the first person to downplay this award. He tried to refuse it. He certainly didn’t believe he merited it. It was awarded liberally. Later after an intense gunfight at a Caco rebel stronghold in Haiti he would be awarded his second MOH but only after he hosted FDR ( worked in SecNav) on a visit to Port au Prince. One wonders at the politics of this too. Chesty Puller, another icon of the Corps, was awarded five Navy Crosses but never the MOH. Puller was the more courageous IMHO.
One can’t help but wonder if Butler’s father’s position as a Congressman ensured his continued career success. Butler would write his parents assiduously. In yet another irony he was marooned in Haiti and considered too valuable to go to the “real war.” He lamented missing out on the real war in Europe. He was a schemer too; he got the SecNav’s son assigned to be his aide betting it would result in his unit being assigned to France. Butler finally got to France in September 1918 but the war would be over. However, he also brought influenza and would deal with it as the Commander of Camp Pontanezen in Brest.
Another leave of absence to be the police commissioner in Philadelphia. He proved himself to be incorruptible.
An intriguing and ironic man Smedley Butler was a Quaker who fought people of color without a thought. Later he had thoughts and was woke to what he had done and became the “anti-Marine.” He went from a teenager aspiring to free Cubans from Spain to destroying democracy in Haiti as a colonel. He died much too young at age 58 right before World War II. The Haitians would say the “Evil One’s” death was ordained and justice for all he had done to their country. Cursed?
I think the most startling and appalling revelation for me was the “heist” by Marines of the Haitian Bank’s coffers and subsequent transfer to Wall Street. This precipitated a political crisis and civil chaos which the United Stated used as a pretext to invade and further control the people and the resources of Haiti.
As for Butler’s record I find it not worthy of emulation or approbation. He’s basically a rich kid from Philadelphia who never completed high school but was intoxicated by going off to the Spanish American War before he was of age. His father was a congressman who later rose to chairman of the then equivalent of our current Armed Services Committee. He missed combat in Cuba but caught some action in the Philippines. More combat in China during the Boxer Rebellion. I was appalled at the looting. He also caught typhoid and was sidelined medically afterwards.
He is assigned to Subic Bay as a newlywed but has a nervous breakdown while tasked with installing gun emplacements. He takes a leave of absence from the Corps and works managing a coal mine in West Virginia. That’s not something that would happen today. He’s promoted to major and is assigned to the Canal Zone while the canal is being constructed. Then to Nicaragua. Involved in the Mexican Revolution with American landing at Vera Cruz where he was awarded the MOH.
Butler was the first person to downplay this award. He tried to refuse it. He certainly didn’t believe he merited it. It was awarded liberally. Later after an intense gunfight at a Caco rebel stronghold in Haiti he would be awarded his second MOH but only after he hosted FDR ( worked in SecNav) on a visit to Port au Prince. One wonders at the politics of this too. Chesty Puller, another icon of the Corps, was awarded five Navy Crosses but never the MOH. Puller was the more courageous IMHO.
One can’t help but wonder if Butler’s father’s position as a Congressman ensured his continued career success. Butler would write his parents assiduously. In yet another irony he was marooned in Haiti and considered too valuable to go to the “real war.” He lamented missing out on the real war in Europe. He was a schemer too; he got the SecNav’s son assigned to be his aide betting it would result in his unit being assigned to France. Butler finally got to France in September 1918 but the war would be over. However, he also brought influenza and would deal with it as the Commander of Camp Pontanezen in Brest.
Another leave of absence to be the police commissioner in Philadelphia. He proved himself to be incorruptible.
An intriguing and ironic man Smedley Butler was a Quaker who fought people of color without a thought. Later he had thoughts and was woke to what he had done and became the “anti-Marine.” He went from a teenager aspiring to free Cubans from Spain to destroying democracy in Haiti as a colonel. He died much too young at age 58 right before World War II. The Haitians would say the “Evil One’s” death was ordained and justice for all he had done to their country. Cursed?
torturedfiber's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
3.0
Masters of Verbosity
This was an okay book. Nothing too special.
I found it very verbose.
And, in all honesty, I read a lot more books earlier this year with a lot bigger atrocities than was detailed in this book.
3.2/5
This was an okay book. Nothing too special.
I found it very verbose.
And, in all honesty, I read a lot more books earlier this year with a lot bigger atrocities than was detailed in this book.
3.2/5