An Unwanted War: The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain over Cuba, 1895-1898

Rating:
Summary: Meticulous History
Review: This book is a painstaking reconstruction of the diplomacy surrounding the Spanish-American War. Author Offner writes well, avoids sweeping generalizations, and sticks closely to the archival record (made up mostly of diplomatic reports and demarches). The reader gets a good feel for the issues faced by policymakers in Washington and Madrid. However, Offner's failure to put events in a broader social or political context makes for a dry narrative. The narrow focus is especially surprising since Offner believes that the war was caused by domestic political pressures in the U.S.