A Leap to Arms; The Cuban Campaign of 1898

Dierks, Jack Cameron

Published by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, PA, 1970

About this Item

xi, [1], 240, [4] pages. Endpaper map, Map. Tabular Data. Appendices. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. The dust jacket is price clipped and has some wear, tears, chips and soiling. Inscribed by the author on the fep verso. Inscription reads 6/26/70 Paul Michael Serves [sp?] J Cameron Dierks. In a lively and sophisticated style, author Jack Dierks describes the course of the "splendid little war" in the Caribbean, concentrating on the U.S. capture of Cuba. Jack Cameron Dierks (1930-2023) attended Beloit College and graduated with an M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University. Jack served with the US Navy as a journalist on staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia and later was a newspaper editor at the Guantanamo Bay Base in Cuba. Jack developed an interest in military strategy and cultural context surrounding foreign policy. In 1970 his book "A Leap to Arms: The Cuban Campaign of 1898" was published as part of a J. B. Lippincott Company commissioned series of battles and campaigns. Jack worked after his time in the Navy in public-relations, in advertising, as a magazine editor, as a freelance writer and as a literary agent. He wrote essays and reviewed books for the Chicago Tribune. For purposes of "perspective," "nostalgia," and the Great Battles of History series, freelance writer Dierks recreates that "splendid little war" in the Caribbean so exuberantly welcomed by a strapping young America awakening to her expansionist role. Dierks straddles the ideological fence--"Humanitarian and imperialist designs both played their part, contributing in a joint way that only the beliefs of a confident century could have fostered"--relying on the picturesque to supersede the analytical. He appreciates the Spanish-American War as a historical Happening--not solely the sinister product of Admiral Mahan's Sea Power agitation, capitalist-imperialist conniving, or naked manifest destiny drives, but a direct manifestation, almost healthy in its inevitability, of the American late Victorian Zeitgeist. "National popular attitudes--fostered and given voice in the press and representation on the highest levels in Washington--were the real moving force." In energetic fashion, Dierks depicts the onset of war fever, the Maine precipitants of armed conflict, and the bungling execution of our military-naval operations, exceeded in ineptness only by the Spanish mismoves. Army-Navy wrangling, animosity between an admiral and a commodore, and the unpopularity of a commanding general are features of the campaign rendered more prominently here than Rough Riding heroics. It's unapologetic war fare. First Edition [stated]. Presumed first printing.

Seller Inventory # 90572

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Leap to Arms; The Cuban Campaign of 1898
• Publisher: J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, PA
• Publication Date: 1970
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Cuba
  • Imperialism