Gangsters of Capitalism

Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire

By: Jonathan M. Katz

Narrated by: Adam Barr

A groundbreaking journey tracing America’s forgotten path to global power - and how its legacies shape our world today - told through the extraordinary life of a complicated Marine.

Smedley Butler was the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Best-selling books were written about him. Hollywood adored him. Wherever the flag went, “The Fighting Quaker” went - serving in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II. From his first days as a 16-year-old recruit at the newly seized Guantánamo Bay, he blazed a path for empire: helping annex the Philippines and the land for the Panama Canal, leading troops in China (twice), and helping invade and occupy Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Mexico, and more. Yet in retirement, Butler turned into a warrior against war, imperialism, and big business, declaring: “I was a racketeer for capitalism."

Award-winning author Jonathan Myerson Katz traveled across the world - from China to Guantánamo, the mountains of Haiti to the Panama Canal - and pored over the personal letters of Butler, his fellow Marines, and his Quaker family on Philadelphia's Main Line. Along the way, Katz shows how the consequences of the Marines' actions are still very much alive: talking politics with a Sandinista commander in Nicaragua, getting a martial arts lesson from a devotee of the Boxer Rebellion in China, and getting cast as a POW extra in a Filipino movie about their American War. Tracing a path from the first wave of US overseas expansionism to the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the crises of democracy in our own time, Gangsters of Capitalism tells an urgent story about a formative era most Americans have never learned about, but that the rest of the world cannot forget.

©2022 Jonathan M. Katz (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Lively, deeply researched ... Katz’s engaging style brings history alive."—Associated Press

"Like Butler himself, Katz’s book is singular and hard to pin down ... an exhilarating hybrid of studious history and adventuresome travelogue."—Jacobin

"Katz’s realism may shock many readers, but they would be well served to join him in pulling back the curtain, tipping over the jugs of institutional Kool-Aid, and taking a long, cold hard look in the proverbial mirror. Like watching a train wreck in slow motion, this is a raw historical perspective that will both fascinate and unsettle."—Task and Purpose

Excellent book

This is an excellent and timely book on a long neglected subject. Very highly recommended.

Brilliant

Great book, wonderfully alternating between Butler's career and vignettes telling us about the places his actions affected.

Remarkable and Revealing

General Smedley Butler, have you heard of him? His story is one of a loyal marine who moved up through the ranks and fought where he was sent in the years before and after WWI. Decorated with two Medal of Honors.
But as he serves the more he sustained how the US military was not used to defend the United States but for political-business reasons. For invading, coercing and manipulating other weaker nations.
He loved his country and democracy and believed his mission was to protect both, but instead he was used for the interest of American big business.
The author traveled to all the places the general fought and relates the situations to later times of US history to even the present.
It is a worthy and valuable biography to read. If you dare leave your political and world history closet.

So much to absorb

Loved it. Should be required reading for hx buffs. Reader was great too. Lots to absorb.

Skewed left some

A great story and great research including going to the locations. The author tried to tell multiple sides of a story but still missed a few and made it seem a little more conspiracy than reality.

How we got here

Great book about the history we aren’t told in school. An enlightening look at how we got here. Well told narrative history and nicely tied into our current times.

historical tour of the crimes of American Empire

thoughtful investigation of the life of Smedley Butler in both historical context and through the lense of the author traveling to major sites of Butler's life. ties the strands of the present back to some of the historic turning points for the early American Empire. documents many of the atrocities that Butler took part in or orchestrated for the benefit of gangster capitalism.

a man's journey to self-realization and awareness.

Smedley Butler, a racist and bigoted man, who spent his life in forcing the will of capitalist imperialist upon the Lesser nations of the world. He was changed by his brutal experiences to question the ruthless imperialism of his government and Military fellows.
an eye-opening revelation of America's past imperialism and its effect on today's fragile democracy.

Exceptional read

Great examination of America’s Imperial past and its impact on the present. Fascinating look at America’s occupation of Haiti and its effects.

A good round perspective of Smedley Butler

Being a person who is generally anti-war and very skeptical of the state department. I learned a great deal more about what the United States did during the early 1900's. The overall narrative in most US history classes jumps from the Civil War, a slight bit on the Spanish War, then straight through to WW1. Butler was in pivotal areas and conflicts I was unaware of before listening to this audio book.This was educational and raw veiw of Butler and his legacy, the bad and the good.