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A review by komet2020
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire by Jonathan M. Katz
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Prior to reading this book, the most I knew about Smedley Butler was that he had been a bold, intrepid, and headstrong officer in the U.S. Marine Corps who had been the recipient of two Medals of Honor - no mean feat, that! And then, after retiring from the Marine Corps, for speaking truth to power to the people through his book, War is a Racket, which was published during the 1930s.
In GANGSTERS OF CAPITALISM: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire, Jonathan Katz sets out to explore and examine the full range of Smedley Butler's life and military service, which had begun in 1898. age 16. He saw action in Cuba, China (during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion), the Philippines (during the insurrection there, in which the U.S. brutally suppressed an independence movement), Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti (during the U.S. occupation there, which lasted from 1915 to 1934), the Dominican Republic, France in 1918 (he was put in a non-combatant command role there, so he missed out on fighting in World War I), and Shanghai during the mid-1920s. Butler retired as a Major General. He was an interesting man. It seems after retiring from the Marines that Butler gave a lot of thought about what he had been called upon to do by the U.S. government as a Marine, which explains why he would later say that war is a racket. He had seen how big business from the U.S., along with the banks, would come into these countries (Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico, and China) and exploit their natural resources and economies.
Katz himself went on an odyssey, retracing Butler's steps through the countries in which he had so faithfully served the interests of the U.S. government. By so doing, he provides the reader with interesting parallels between now and Butler's time. This is a book I would urge anyone to read who wants to better understand the world in which we now live and how various parts of it were impacted (Katz stresses the negatives) by U.S. foreign policy from the presidencies of William McKinley to Herbert Hoover.
In GANGSTERS OF CAPITALISM: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire, Jonathan Katz sets out to explore and examine the full range of Smedley Butler's life and military service, which had begun in 1898. age 16. He saw action in Cuba, China (during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion), the Philippines (during the insurrection there, in which the U.S. brutally suppressed an independence movement), Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti (during the U.S. occupation there, which lasted from 1915 to 1934), the Dominican Republic, France in 1918 (he was put in a non-combatant command role there, so he missed out on fighting in World War I), and Shanghai during the mid-1920s. Butler retired as a Major General. He was an interesting man. It seems after retiring from the Marines that Butler gave a lot of thought about what he had been called upon to do by the U.S. government as a Marine, which explains why he would later say that war is a racket. He had seen how big business from the U.S., along with the banks, would come into these countries (Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico, and China) and exploit their natural resources and economies.
Katz himself went on an odyssey, retracing Butler's steps through the countries in which he had so faithfully served the interests of the U.S. government. By so doing, he provides the reader with interesting parallels between now and Butler's time. This is a book I would urge anyone to read who wants to better understand the world in which we now live and how various parts of it were impacted (Katz stresses the negatives) by U.S. foreign policy from the presidencies of William McKinley to Herbert Hoover.