"Every schoolchild can recite the list of America's major wars - such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II. But how many of us understand the crucial role that the Barbary Wars, the Boxer Rebellion, or the occupations of Haiti, Nicaragua and the Philippines played in America's rise over the past two centuries?

In The Savage Wars of Peace, Max Boot shows how these smaller actions - right up to the recent conflicts in Bosnia, Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan - have been essential to the growth and projection of American power. The Savage Wars of Peace is a history of those smaller, undeclared wars and their importance in American international affairs."--BOOK JACKET.