Diary of a Dirty Little War: The Spanish-American War of 1898 by Harvey Rosenfeld; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Ian Esmo

From its beginnings, America has acted out much of its history on the battlefront. Yet for the average American, little is known of the Spanish-American War. The reasons for our entry never seemed compelling—at times, yellow fever seemed more the enemy than did Spanish troops—and the United States was ill prepared for the venture. Nevertheless, this conflict served to unify a country that only thirty years before had been hopelessly divided by civil strife.

This colorful account reveals how every aspect of American life was ultimately touched by the war. War heroes abounded in the Spanish-American war: George Dewey, Richmond Pearson Hobson, Joe Wheeler, William T. Sampson, and of course, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. Rosenfeld strikes a balance between scholarly and popular writing, bringing to life a war that has often been overlooked.

“Rosenfeld brings in an impressive worldwide scope. What unfolds is a living history enthusiast’s dream, a cornucopia of the way things really were at a specific time in a particular place!”—Reviewers Consortium

HARVEY ROSENFELD, a lifelong baseball fan, is the author of several highly regarded biographies, including Raoul Wallenberg: Angel of Mercy and Roger Maris: A Title to Fame, one of the American Library Association’s best books of 1991. He teaches at Pace and St. John’s universities and is the founding editor of Martyrdom and Resistance, a Holocaust bimonthly.