WAR, THE AMERICAN WAY

About the Book

War, the American Way studies the common patterns in how America thinks of and conducts its wars. After a general view of "the Morphology of War," the book analyzes the recurring themes in most American wars, from, among others, with the Native Americans, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The recurring theme is how America seems capable of fighting only holy wars for universal principles of American democracy and, recently, aiming at "nation-building" to "make the world safe for democracy."

About the Author

Bernard Wishy is a lifelong historian and university teacher and has taught at Columbia, Berkeley and North Carolina State. He has degrees from Columbia, Yale, and Oxford and has written or edited more than 50 books and articles. His special interests are American and European history since 1750. His latest book is Despotism and Democracy (2002) see its web site. Another book, Goodbye, Machiavelli (1997) was nominated for the Bancroft, Parkman, and Beveridge prizes in American history. He has also published books on John Stuart Mill and Thomas Jefferson.