Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History

By: Hans Schmidt

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Synopsis: &“Traces Butler&’s stormy career . . . As pure biography, Maverick Marine is a colorful story about a swashbuckling establishment-shaker.&”—Publishers Weekly Smedley Butler&’s life and career epitomize the contradictory nature of American military policy through the first part of this century. Butler won renown as a Marine battlefield hero, campaigning in most of America&’s foreign military expeditions from 1898 to the late 1920s. He became the leading national advocate for paramilitary police reform. Upon his retirement, however, he renounced war and imperialism and devoted his energy and prestige to various dissident and leftist political causes. This biography of Smedley Butler is &“a sympathetic portrait of a Victorian officer-warrior who lost his way as he advanced in rank and his America and his Marine Corps changed after World War I&” (The Journal of American History). &“This long-awaited biography is as crisp as a David Brinkley commentary. Fact-packed and exquisitely documented.&”—Naval Institute Proceedings