Cast in Deathless Bronze: Andrew Rowan, the Spanish-American War, and the Origins of American Empire

Besides William Randolph Hearst’s yellow journalism and Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, is there anything else to know about America’s “splendid little war” with Spain? According to Donald Tunnicliff Rice, there’s a lot more.

Cast in Deathless Bronze tells the story of West Virginian army officer Andrew Summers Rowan’s secret 1898 mission to “learn what he could about the Spanish troops, the Cuban revolutionary army that had been fighting the Spanish, and the lay of the land.” Rowan’s exploits were made famous by Elbert Hubbard (who later went down with the ill-fated Lusitania in 1915) when he wrote the sensational A Message to Garcia, detailing Rowan’s derring-do.

Only, it wasn’t really true. At all.

In this fascinating new popular history, Rice dives into the true story of Rowan’s Cuban adventure, offering up a fresh perspective on the Spanish-American War and the rising power of the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Scholarly and accessible, Cast in Deathless Bronze is worth the read for the slightly-more-than-casual student of history.