The Savage Wars of Peace

Max Boot argues that America's smaller, undeclared wars, far less remembered than the Revolutionary War, the Civil War or the two world wars, were essential to the growth and projection of its power over two centuries. His history takes in the Barbary Wars, the Boxer Rebellion and the occupations of the Philippines, Nicaragua and Haiti, and carries the story forward to recent conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti and Afghanistan. Boot uses these forgotten wars to weigh their importance in American foreign affairs, and he also makes an argument about the role the military should play in the future. The book is illustrated with photographs and maps.

James Mattis included it on the list of favorite books in an appendix to Call Sign Chaos.