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Lindsay Bolton
1A
12/1/15
Mr. Fuller
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq
Book Review
1:

At first, before I started reading the book when I saw we had to write about the objective

of the historian, I was in shock. I thought it would be impossible to determine, and until I got to
the end of the the book, I didn't really see the full picture. It seemed to me as though the
purpose of this entire book was to, in a way, frighten us. Not the kind of scared that would lead
to us cowering in the closet, but enough to make his readers want to take action. In his thesis he
states that over a century of 'regime change' operations, the U.S. has demonstrated their
inability to rule foreign lands.
This book talks all about the instances and tactics America used to take over small
regimes in countries. It is very obvious throughout the entire book that Kinzer is very against
this. His thesis suggests that America should immediately stop these reckless actions and stop
trying to overtake, or, as the name suggests, overthrow, many of their smaller neighbors.
The objective seems to lie in the subtext, but really is a bold faced statement. He wants
everyone capable and whomever is reading his book to stand up to these actions and fight for a
new way of life. He writes about many different instances of overthrowing small nations and the
patterns that each of these instances share. He also shows the devastating pattern that most of
these instances ends in travesty. Actually, out of the fourteen nations that suffered the effects of
American regime overthrow, only one does not have a tragic ending.
Kinzer has noticeable tactics in this book to achieve his objective. He uses sarcasm and
poignant ironies to make his point clear and as obvious as possible. I believe this is also why he
attempts to make reading it as simple, and easy as possible. Kinzer wants people to read it and
react to it the same way he must have when he first heard about the many displays of 'American
power' in failed attempts of regime overthrow. This must be why he writes what might be
considered novels about history. It isn't the boring, two-dimensional, everyday history book. He
doesn't write it as a chronicle like most history books. This makes it more like an intriguing story
with hidden emotion and his own political views in the subscript. However, one of his most
noticeable tactics is one I found at the end of reading the entire book. Kinzer actually includes

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notes in the back, that not only state what happened in the book in numerical order, but has the
exact page number, listed next to each event. Kinzer actually does a good job of accomplishing
his objective. Now, after reading this book, I have a firm grasp of this statement: America's years
of regime overthrowing small nations is 'bad'.
2:

This book is about regime overthrow of fourteen colonies. Kinzer starts off his book by

using a relatable historical event, affecting America right now. Then, taking it to a related
historical event of the overthrow of one of the colonies. This is the tone throughout the entire
book. First making it relatable to the people, then jumping back in time to a related instance of
overthrow.
The affected colonies included Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Nicaragua,
Honduras, South Vietnam, Iran, Guatemala, Chile, Grenada, Panama and Afghanistan. These
are all small, neighboring nations that were, what you might call, targets of the U.S. during this
time. Some even had democratic governments. America demonstrated tragic failure in each of
these. Just to begin and start off these regime overthrow failures, the U.S. betrayed the last
queen of Hawaii and started the SPanish-American War, and this is only in the first two colonies
mentioned.
He continues to illustrate the veracity of the U.S. explaining what they did and how they
did it. America, being a 'new' country felt the need to struggle for power. It was in almost
seemingly desperate attempts that America practiced the overthrowing of small nations. At a
point in this book, Kinzer seems to illustrate these actions almost like terrorism. Saying the U.S.
invaded other countries for small, short-term gains. These gains were, in fact, short lived
because there were, as stated before, tragic repercussions later on. One of the many ironies
stated by Kinzer in this book, is that in some cases the U.S. funded or helped their own
destruction.
They seemed to have a knack for helping those that would eventually rise up against
them. They did this because they thought it would be a true gain for them and, in their struggle
for power, rushed to conclusions without even considering the consequences. For example,
Kinzer notes that America overthrew an Iranian prime minister, leading to a dictatorship, leading
to a revolt by radical fundamentalists, which are now the ancestors of guerrillas in Lebanon. The
U.S. basically caused this to happen single-handedly. Another instance of irony detailed by
Kinzer is the American attempt to secure an oil pipeline. In this instance, the U.S. successfully
opposed the Soviets in Afghanistan. By doing this, the actually assisted in the Taliban's rise to
power there. In other words, the U.S. was actually financing their own assassins. After

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concluding his detailed descriptions of these events, he leaves us with his thesis stating, "A
century of American 'regime change' operations have shown that the United States is singularly
unsuited to ruling foreign lands".
3:

Although I hate to admit it, this was a decent book as far as historical documentation

goes. It was well written, and, at points, entirely intriguing. Sometimes I even found myself not
being able to put it down. This is likely because, as stated earlier, it is more in a novel format. I
also really appreciated how he made the story relatable to us. This is not a common occurrence
in most history books I have studied. Usually it is all about the facts, with the inevitable hint of
the American sense of pride, as well as the American point of view.
This history book actually tried to take a look from the other points of view, and describe
detail in that sense. However, I am not saying he sounds to me like a man without any pride in
his country. I think if he didn't have pride in this country he wouldn't have written a book on a
topic he seems quite passionate about. Although, it does seem that he disagrees with some of
the steps taken by this country. Overthrowing other countries is something he clearly sees as
wrong.
Kinzer, in my opinion, was a little too passionate. I know that sounds a little weird, but it
seemed as though it was more of a personal journal, kept to remind himself of his own
standards. I have a like, as well as a dislike for some of the exact same aspects of this book.
For instance, as I said earlier, this history book being somewhat like a novel.
While at the same time I truly believe I wouldn't have been able to read this book if it
were just as dull, and just like textbook material as others I wouldn't have been able to read it, I
think this is exactly what made it so much less objective than I believe it should have been. This
man is obviously very opinionated and is using the wonderful freedom in America known as
freedom of speech. I can actually even say I agree with him in a lot of what he says about the
practice of overthrow demonstrated by America over a century of failures. However, I don't
believe these are truly proper writing skills.
I had a bit of a hard time reading this book, especially in the beginning. It was a lot
longer, and a very different style than anything I would have chosen for myself if I had the
option. I know it was a much easier book to read than likely any other book that could have
been assigned to our class, but I just seem to have a hard time reading this kind of nonfiction. I
also would have to critique the repetitive nature of the book.
Throughout the entire reading, I was faced with the same inflection and voice. It was
always the exact same thing: a story that readers can relate to to get them interested, an

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instance of overthrow in history, and then a small conclusion. This bothered me quite a bit
actually. It was almost like a monotoned voice of the book itself. I'm not even really sure how to
fix this problem because I am not a writer. My best and only suggestion would be to change the
format up a little bit. Make it a little more interesting, or a little more of a surprise. This may not
be a normal thing for history books, but since he does seem to have the intention of making it
like an intriguing novel, perhaps he could have went as far as to change the format.
In conclusion, I absolutely enjoyed this book more than any other history book that I
have ever read. Although, I do have a few critiques about it, that is likely because I have never
actually had to sit down and read an entire history book from cover to cover before. Perhaps this
was good practice for college, and a good book to start with.
4:

This semester course is American Civilization. This is a perfect example of America's

'coming into being'. At first, America really wasn't even on the map, but it made a rise to power.
It has also been demonstrated more than once that America is willing to play dirty for this power.
Sometimes even stepping on others to achieve their goal. We have learned a lot in this course
about wars, first dealings with new civilizations, including American Indians, and the basic
building blocks of this country.
That is how this book fits into the material covered in this course. It is the shameful
methods of the U.S. becoming powerful. For example, the first dealings with American Indians.
They were treated with some decency at first, but were then taken advantage of and killed. This
is the concept of 'they wanted it, so they took it'. At any cost, in fact. This is exactly what
happened with regime overthrow. The U.S. saw something they wanted and were willing to
thwart much smaller nations to achieve their goal. In some cases, they showed no passion.
This book really doesn't seem to be all about the perfections of this country. Rather, it is
about the imperfection that eventually brought this country to where it is today. It explains
exactly how America became a civilization. It was through some difficulty and cruelty to other
nations or peoples. This course isn't all about the imperfection of this nation, but it does include
them where they truly are.