Imperial Grunts
Category: History: U.S.: 21st Century
Author: Robert D Kaplan
Copyright/published Year: 2005 by Random House
ISBN: 1-4000-6132-6
Binding: Paper
In this landmark book, Robert D. Kaplan, veteran correspondent
for The Atlantic Monthly and author of Balkan Ghosts,
shows how American imperialism and the Global War on Terrorism
are implemented on the ground, mission by mission, in the most
exotic landscapes around the world.
Given unprecedented access, Kaplan takes us from the jungles
of the southern Philippines to the glacial dust bowls of
Mongolia, from the forts of Afghanistan to the forests of South
America-not to mention Iraq-to show us Army Special Forces,
Marines, and other uniformed Americans carrying out the many
facets of U.S. foreign policy: negotiating with tribal factions,
storming terrorist redoubts, performing humanitarian missions and
training foreign soldiers.
In Imperial Grunts, Kaplan provides an unforgettable
insider's account not only of our current involvement in world
affairs, but also of where America, including the culture of its
officers and enlisted men, is headed. This is the rare book that
has the potential to change the way readers view the men and
women of the military, war, and the global reach of American
imperialism today.
As Kaplan writes, the only way to understand America's
military is "on foot, or in a Humvee, with the troops themselves,
for even as elites in New York and Washington debated imperialism
in grand, historical terms, individual marines, soldiers, airmen,
and sailors-all the cultural repositories of America's unique
experience with freedom-were interpreting policy on their own, on
the ground, in dozens upon dozens of countries every week,
oblivious to such faraway discussions. . . . It was their stories
I wanted to tell: from the ground up, at the point of
contact."
Never before has America's overarching military strategy
been parsed so incisively and evocatively. Kaplan introduces us
to lone American servicemen whose presence in obscure countries
is largely unknown, and concludes with a heart-stopping portrait
of marines in the first battle in Fallujah. Extraordinary in its
scope, beautifully written, Imperial Grunts, the first of
two volumes, combines first-rate reporting with the sensitivity
and insights of an acclaimed writer steeped in history,
literature, and philosophy, to deliver a masterly account of
America's global role in the twenty-first century.
Condition Information
This book is new.
