Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer
Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer
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Overthrow
America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq

Author: Stephen Kinzer

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Unabridged: 15 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/29/2006


Synopsis

A fast-paced narrative history of the coups, revolutions, and invasions by which the United States has toppled fourteen foreign governments—not always to its own benefit.

"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing through the Spanish-American War and the Cold War and into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the latest, though perhaps not the last, example of the dangers inherent in these operations.

In Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer tells the stories of the audacious politicians, spies, military commanders, and business executives who took it upon themselves to depose monarchs, presidents, and prime ministers. He also shows that the U.S. government has often pursued these operations without understanding the countries involved; as a result, many of them have had disastrous long-term consequences.


About Stephen Kinzer

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning New York Times correspondent who has reported from more than fifty countries on five continents. During the 1980s he covered revolution and social upheaval in Central America. In 1990 he was named chief of the Times bureau in Berlin and spent the next six years covering the emergence of post-Communist Europe. Later, Kinzer became the first Times bureau chief in Istanbul. He is coauthor of Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala and the author of Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua; Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds; and Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevin on July 02, 2023

5-star topic (especially presenting it to the US mainstream in an accessible manner), minus 2 stars for Kinzer's career of shilling for the NYT when courageous journalism is inconvenient... The Good: --We have to start somewhere, and Kinzer's account of a century of US terrorism on other countries do......more

Goodreads review by Anna on February 25, 2008

Overthrow made me realize how poor my education of US history is, and saddly my foreign policy understanding as well. I am shocked that I hadn't learned about some of these coups in, say, my foreign policy to Latin America class in college or any one of my other international relations courses. This......more

Goodreads review by Naeem on August 01, 2014

Kinzer writes well and knows how get the reader to keep turning the pages. He is at his best when he is putting together individual stories of little known characters who played decisive roles in the history of US interventions. The book is worth it for these stories and for the characters that Kinz......more

It is about time to reread this book that documents the USA's "involvement" in many of the governments of the Western Hemisphere. I offer two observations: 1. If any reader thinks that there is no precedent for what Vladimir Putin is doing to Ukraine, this book will shock you. 2. It was only a short ti......more

Goodreads review by Neil on December 19, 2008

The American government has consistently invaded sovereign nations and gone to war to defend big business concerns and help corporate America pillage the natural resources of foreign nations. Hawaii was a stable monarchy before the American sugar plantation owners felt they were being prevented from......more