Though America did not join rebellious Cuban forces against the Spanish empire until 1898, Frederick Funston (1865 1917) was so moved by a speech by Gen. Daniel Sickles in 1896 that he went to Cuba as a filibuster in the battle for Cuban independence. When the United States finally went to war against Spain, he took command of a regiment, was sent to the Philippine-American War, and received the Medal of Honor for his daring and skill in crossing a river to turn the flank of the Philippine army at the Battle of Calumpit. Two years later, in 1901, he became a national hero for capturing...

World War II shaped the United States in profound ways, and this new book--the first in the Legacies of War series--explores one of the most significant changes it fostered: a dramatic increase in ethnic and religious tolerance. A Nation Forged in War is the first full-length study of how large-scale mobilization during the Second World War helped to dissolve long-standing differences among white soldiers of widely divergent backgrounds. Never before or since have so many Americans served in the armed forces at one time: more than 15 million donned uniforms in the period from 1941 to 1945....