America Invades: How We've Invaded or been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth

We know that the only way Americans learn geography is through war. This book sure helps with that. According to "America Invades", the U.S. has been militarily involved in 191 of the 194 countries recognized by the United Nations as of 2014. And 84 of those 191 have had actual military invasions.That's a lot of invading. The countries are presented alphabetically, and wouldn't you know - the first one is Afghanistan. As I remember, there are few judgement calls expressed on whether or not the U.S. should have done this or that in this or that country. There is, however, light humor. Under "Chile", for example, we learn "in the Battle of Valparaiso, the USS Essex fought bravely but eventually lost against the British warships, the fearsomely named HMS Phoebe and HMS Cherub."Entries are necessarily abbreviated. Chapters on countries like Germany are longer than the average chapter, but I wouldn't expect them to cover all the military activity in detail. But this book is a good starting point, and piqued my interest in several areas of world-wide history.If nothing else, there is lots of great trivia. Check out the chapter on Haiti to find the origin of the phrase "cup of Joe." And, would you believe we had the "Pig War of 1859" with Canada?The authors include 7 pages of simple world maps at the end of the book. These were very helpful as I read through the chapters. There's also a Glossary and a very complete Index. There's a mid-section of 16 pages of photos. The photos aren't always the most interesting, but that's a quibble. Last, but not least, "5% of all sales from 'America Invades' will be donated to military charities."Overall, a good non-fiction book. If I read a lot of chapters in one sitting, it got a little monotonous, sometimes, because our interventions here and there can sound similar. But over all, a better than average non-fiction book. 4.4 stars, rounded down to 4.Trivia Question: What was the first country to declare war on the United States of America?Hint: It is also that first country where the U.S. sought to topple another country's government through covert action.I received a free hardback of "America Invades".Happy Reader

A very interesting history book related to the use of American military around the world, based on a country by country narrative. Very similar to the British version.While comprehensive and informative in nature, there are some mistakes in the research. As an example, the author claims the Versailles Treaty ended the war between the United States and Austria following World War 1. The treaty ending the war with Austria and the allies was the Treaty of Saint-Germain, which the United States did not sign. The United States signed a separate agreement in 1921.The use of the term "we" in reference to the United States and military in grating throughout and hinders the book from being a "great read". It would be far more proper and authoritative to use actual names.I would have given the book 3 stars, but it gains an extra star for numerous examples of, "hmm, I didn't know that". Future editions (if there are any) can easily get 5 stars by incorporating my suggestions.I believe the author has done some decent research into writing this book on a topic that I have never seen written before regarding American military.

An entertaining review of US military involvement in the countries of the world. "Military involvement" though is a stretch for many if not most of them. Some of the entries were treated superficially and probably should not have been included. Lesotho is one of many. The lack of footnotes and references is a major flaw. For a detailed review of US involvement in other countries by the CIA, read "Legacy of Ashes."  Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA . PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, in the next version, delete the hundreds (or more) occurrences of "for instance." It was very annoying and almost caused me to throw the book away. "For example" is almost as bad.

This book has a lot of information in it and, like the authors' other book, America Invaded, it is interesting but is written in a way that made it harder for me to put it all together into a story. It's more like reading a dictionary or the old Encyclopedia Brittanica.

As a former h.s. American history teacher I can imagine using this book as a supplement to study U.S military engagements around the world. Mr. Kelly's writing style is engaging, personal, and very readable. Every chapter of this book could serve as a springboard for classroom study and discussion.Students across the country would benefit from reading this book. History teachers everywhere could use this as an invaluable classroom aid.

This is a different way to look at history. The reader can jump from country to country as each is listed alphabetically. I was visiting a couple of Latin american countries recently. It was helpful to pick up America Invades for a cliff notes like refresher course on our history there.

I have the attention span of a house cat, and I love history. So sawing into a thick historical manuscript is a challenge for me. America Invades is an ideal combination of historical retrospective, relevant context, and a personable narrative voice. AI has a nice way of stitching together global events with the history of each country.Not only would I recommend AI, I think it should be required reading for voters...AI is "American Foreign Policy History 101" in an easy to read format...TG

Great for introduction to our overseas history. The little tidbits was great led me down other paths.

As the saying goes "The Victor Writes the History Books". This book is more of a nationalistic rendering than a historical document. As a student of military history I noted that the authors frequently mischaracterize USA's invovement in the sovereign affairs of other counties. Their interference was often justified on the basis of "doing good" (e.g. fighting socialism) rather than nationalistic, political and economic interests which were the real reasons.