Endless Holocausts: Mass Death in the History of the United States Empire

This book deals with subject matters that most Americans are unaware of. It should be required reading for anyone unfamiliar with the true history of the United States of America. Besides David Michael Smith, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is another author who is unafraid to expose the truth surrounding the establishment of our country, but within these pages, there is a more overall and general approach, along with a wide range and huge number of resources. According to EducationWeek, critical race theory critics fear that some students would somehow be harmed by exposure to these ideas, but how can we expect history teachers to teach children something false. This book will help anyone who is curious about those known facts that compose the historical record about what really happened.

Academic histories of the U.S. can tend to specialize on one aspect or another of U.S. villainy: imperialist offensives of the Cold War era; the genocide of indigenous peoples as the U.S. aggressively expanded west in the nineteenth century; the horrors of slavery and the Middle Passage; brutal conditions faced by working people in the factories; or the mass death enabled by a privatized, for-profit healthcare system. Endless Holocausts brings all of these spheres – military, economic, medical, and others – together into one study, a survey of the immense casualties arising from the U.S. capitalist-imperialist system as a whole.This is an important perspective. The last major U.S. imperialist offensive began in 2001 – after the 9-11 al-Qaeda attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. – with the invasion of Afghanistan and, ultimately, Iraq. This offensive has ended, with U.S. forces first departing Iraq and then ignominiously fleeing Kabul. The occupations, far from strengthening the U.S. position in the Middle East and broader region, badly weakened that position. At a global level, the U.S. empire is in a situation analogous to that of the immediate post-Vietnam era after 1975. Still, as can be seen with the U.S. intervention in the Russia-Ukraine war, it is possible, if not necessarily likely, for the U.S. to rebuild its ability to intervene globally – which is exactly what happened over a 15-year period after the massive defeat at the hands of Vietnamese liberation forces.Grasping the true, immense history of U.S. aggression around the world helps people to understand this possibility. The lengthy list of U.S. crimes and their casualties is the focus of two extensive chapters, The Holocausts of Pax Americana I / II, in Smith’s book. Some are more commonly known, such as the U.S.-backed overthrow of the progressive Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. Many are much less known, such as U.S. backing for the bloodthirsty, anticommunist terror groups in socialist-aligned Angola and Mozambique throughout the 1980s. Students and other readers new to these questions will find numerous ideas for further research.More broadly, Endless Holocausts implicitly poses a question: If the U.S. capitalist-imperialist system is dependent upon such mass death, as the book documents in detail, then what happens when climate change begins upending the basic contours of human life as it has existed for many millennia? For example, the U.S. government has allowed more than one million people in the country to simply drop dead from COVID over the last three years, and such new epidemics are only going to become more frequent as ecocide accelerates. Human populations have increased since 10,000 B.C., and significantly since around 1800 A.D., but that is going to reverse in the coming years – at least in the absence of a dramatic overturn of the existing system. Such a system that cavalierly discards millions of workers – because a simple mask, a vaccine, a day of sicktime, a doctor visit, a living wage, a solar cell or wind turbine, etcetera is not profitable – is not viable in the grim new world coming into being. It is worth noting here the argument that the Black Death of the fourteenth century, which wiped out up to half of the European labor force, facilitated such a transformation in the economic mode of production: the decline of feudalism and the ascendancy of capitalism itself and the new bourgeoisie.Endless Holocausts gives a lot of food for thought and is an excellent, wholistic survey of mass death in the building of the U.S. empire.

I read Endless Holocausts to learn new facts about U.S. history and American intervention in other countries. This author clearly lays out truths about many appalling historical events. Readers will discover many reprehensible actions by the United States working in collusion with numerous other nations to produce, for example, a steady supply of workers often laboring under horrendous conditions. As an American, I am forced to face my country’s long-standing, deliberate record as an empire builder with a fierce disregard for the human rights of workers.The title, Endless Holocausts, is particularly appealing. Growing up, I was taught that there was only one Holocaust—Nazi Germany’s systematic genocide during WWll. This author demonstrates that many holocausts have occurred throughout U.S. history and are still happening today.The footnotes are impressive and documented in a manner that makes further research by the reader much easier to pursue than in most books. In fact, studying some specific holocausts, I read several pages of the books and articles listed in the footnotes to enlarge my understanding of how some events could possibly have happened.I teach English to adults who come from many of the countries described in Endless Holocausts. Reading this book has increased my comprehension of specific historical events that have occurred during my students’ lifetimes. Many of my students are well-versed in U. S. involvement in their respective countries, and this book’s incredible insights have helped me understand why some students prefer not to discuss certain topics or share their opinions.Endless Holocausts is an excellent resource. The author writes clearly and informatively, avoiding jargon and using vocabulary that helps readers become knowledgeable about the bloody, ugly side of U.S. history. The subject matter is deeply disturbing, but this is a wonderful book!Patty H

This is undoubtedly the most thought-provoking book I have ever read! It is exceptionally well written and an amazing chronology of the pathway the United States chose to follow from its inception to the present. The list of references is extensive and all the information presented is well documented. In his discussion of its rise to a world power, the author addresses many issues, including wars, both foreign and domestic, expansionism, egotism, greed, and corruption, among others, exhibited by the United States. Furthermore, he discusses the many times the United States intentionally meddled in the affairs of foreign governments in order to better serve its own interests, wants and needs. Overall, this is an eye-opening read that accurately depicts how, when and where the United States was responsible either directly, or indirectly for the deaths of countless numbers of people around the world. This book will most certainly increase your awareness and knowledge of how the United States became a world power and at what cost!

There’s a hole in Uncle Sam’s arm where all the money goes and here is a detailed account. Mass murder, environmental devastation, the torture of the people and the planet all for the benefit of the few.