Content area
Full Text
Chasing Ghosts: Unconventional Warfare in American History. By John J. Tierney, Jr. Washington.: Potomac Books, 2006. ISBN 1-59797-015-8. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvii, 289. $26.95.
Major warfare has been the exception rather than the rule in American history. From the colonial period to the present day, American soldiers have spent much more time and effort in limited and low-intensity conflicts, many of which were insurgencies or counterinsurgencies than in conventional wars. Iraq and Afghanistan are only the latest in a long string of such conflicts. Yet, according to John Tierney, American infantry has never been "prepared at the outset to fight an insurrection when faced with such a challenge" (p. 2).
In reviewing the history of these struggles, Tierney provides a critique that will be familiar to most military historians. He argues that, despite our frequent experience in this...