Martial Spirit

by Walter Millis

Replete with larger-than-life characters, the American adventure in Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands in 1898 was a watershed in the United States? rise to world power. In this superbly written narrative of what we now call the Spanish-American War, Walter Millis analyzes its causes and the motives of the time?s leading spirits?Teddy Roosevelt, Hearst, Pulitzer, Dewey, Lodge, Hay, and others?and recounts the ironies and grotesqueries of the conflict. "A notable contribution to the study of American history and of American character."?Henry Steele Commager. "Mr. Millis writes every page well."?New York Times. "A mature, intelligent, and exciting work?a rare occurrence in historical writing?A complete history of the American people at war which is so well contrived and so wittily written that it puts to shame both the efforts of professional historians and the products of those writers who merely seek to amuse without intending to inform."?The Nation.

Genres: History

427 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Walter Millis was an editorial and staff writer for the New York Herald Tribune from 1924 to 1954. Millis was a staff member of the Fund for the Republic from 1954 to 1968.

Reviews

[Frazier Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spanish-American war, one of the high dramas in U.S. history, is given a balanced treatment by Millis in 1931. In Congress, the spirit of our nation was fiercely debated, with beautiful flares of rhetoric. While a familiar cast of characters shaped the destiny of America and the Cuban nation. (Roosevelt, Martí, Lodge.)

(Representative Skinner, NC, 1896, a spontaneous response on the house floor)
"I tell you, Mr. Speaker, the Cubans look upon [the American] flag today as the emblem of liberty, as we look upon the cross as the emblem of Christianity; and wherever you would advance the cross to establish the Christian religion, I take that flag as the counterpart of the cross, as the emblem of liberty. I would place it over Cuba...I want to see it established in every land and on every sea, not only in America but over every people on this continent who ask for the blessings of liberty."

Representative Gillet responds: "I do not especially object to ambition for aggrandizement... but I think if the United States is going to be actuated by ambition she out to say so, and not say she is actuated by philanthropy. I think hypocrisy is a vastly worse vice than ambition or greed of territory."

[Herb Hastings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, first published in the 1930's, presents a somewhat sardonic history of the Spanish-American War and it's aftermath. The war appears as a cruel farce which violated the established principles of the nation. The Spanish even effectively surrender before the US declares war. The stated aim of the war is to free Cuba from the yoke of Spanish domination. Yet it ends with the US cooperating with the Spanish army to suppress the independence movement in the Philippines.
This book is well worth spending some time with.