UNC Press - An Unwanted War

320 pp., 6.125 x 9.25

Paper

ISBN 978-0-8078-4380-2

Published: September 1992

The Diplomacy of the United States and Spain Over Cuba, 1895-1898

Offner clarifies the complex relations of the United States, Spain, and Cuba leading up to the Spanish-American War and contends that the war was not wanted by any of the parties but was nonetheless unavoidable. He shows that a final round of peace negotiations failed in large part because internal political constraints limited diplomatic flexibility.

Reviews

"A fascinating and relevant work in the wake of the recent Persian Gulf War."
--Library Journal

"One of the most complete and certainly one of the better-researched presentations of the traditional historiography. It is perhaps wholly appropriate that we begin the second century of debate with a work of distinction reaffirming familiar arguments. It points to the direction and distance we must travel."
--Journal of American History

"Exhaustively researched, clearly and logically written, and forcefully argued."
--International History Review

"Clearly and economically written, An Unwanted War combines rich detail, provocative insights, a wealth of fresh material, and a clear-cut point of view."
--The Americas

"Far and away the best single account of the diplomacy associated with the short but extraordinarily important war with Spain in 1898. . . . [Offner] emphasizes the domestic influences that affected the policies of the belligerents but also notes the larger international circumstances that conditioned judgments in Washington and in Madrid. This study demonstrates that the practice of international political history in the United States is alive and well."
--David F. Trask, author of The War with Spain in 1898

"A major contribution to the historical literature on the war with Spain in 1898. John Offner's prodigious research in European and Cuban sources has enabled him to replace all previous treatments about the coming of the war and its impact on the history of the United States."
--Lewis L. Gould, University of Texas at Austin