The Spanish-American War (review)

My initial reaction to this book was less than favorable. I felt that Hendrickson's approach to the topic was unnecessarily shallow and contributed little to the ongoing scholarship surrounding the Spanish-American War. However, as I read further, I was forced to revise my original impression. While the approach may be shallow, Hendrickson has presented a remarkably broad view of the war, covering briefly as many different aspects of the conflict as possible. This, in itself, begins to suggest the true value of this text - it is not intended to add anything to the scholarship; instead, it is designed to introduce a new generation of scholars to the topic.

As an introduction to the Spanish-American War, this book is superb. The prose is easy to read and the pace of the text is quick and exciting. More importantly, where the main text of the book leaves off (only 84 pages), the real strength of the book becomes fully apparent. Following the seventh chapter is a short but fairly comprehensive selection of period art and photographs, offering students some useful visuals to complement the text. After the pictures come a series of biographical sketches of major figures in the war, each of which, while short, is well researched and rounds out the book. Then there is a surprisingly large bibliography for a book of this length, followed by a remarkably complete index. Thus, while the actual text of the book is quite limited in scope, readers are given sufficient resources to explore the topic in as much depth as they wish.

As a professor, I would be happy to see this book in a student's bibliography, if not extensively in the footnotes. The book is highly recommended for advanced high school and college students, as well as for their instructors. Scholars of the war may find it thin and a little shallow, but not entirely lacking in merit. The book assumes little or no knowledge of the war, and is therefore entirely accessible to any interested reader. It should be noted that this book is part of a series being published by Greenwood Press—if the other books in the series are as well put together as this one, they will be a valuable addition to any school library.