William Walker's Wars

How One Man's Private American Army Tried to Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras

By: Scott Martelle

Narrated by: David Colacci

In the decade before the onset of the Civil War, groups of Americans engaged in a series of longshot - and illegal - forays into Mexico, Cuba, and other Central American countries in hopes of taking them over. These efforts became known as filibustering, and their goal was to seize territory to create new independent fiefdoms, which would ultimately be annexed by the still-growing United States. Most failed miserably.

William Walker was the outlier. Short, slender, and soft-spoken with no military background - he trained as a doctor before becoming a lawyer and then a newspaper editor - Walker was an unlikely leader of rough-hewn men and adventurers. But in 1856 he managed to install himself as president of Nicaragua. Neighboring governments saw Walker as a risk to the region and worked together to drive him out - efforts aided, incongruously, by the United States' original tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt.

William Walker's Wars is a story of greedy dreams and ambitions, the fate of nations and personal fortunes, and the dark side of Manifest Destiny, for among Walker's many goals was to build his own empire based on slavery. This little-remembered story from US history is a cautionary tale for all who dream of empire.

©2019 Scott Martelle (P)2019 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Scott Martelle's page-turning account draws on thorough research to tell the story of William Walker as it has never been told before." (T.J. Stiles, author of The First Tycoon)

Great book.

I knew about William Walker but not like this. Loved this book. I now better understand my country's history.

Fascinating neglected American History

It was a good biography of William Walker and his Fillabusters to various Latin American countries. Unfortunately, there was not a ton of context outside of a good aside about the Nicaragua route and American business interests, but it was so personally focused it was hard to grasp the bigger picture. It also had a crazy abrupt ending

overconfidence in human form

William Walker was an interesting guy, and a much more successful military leader than I realized. his confidence- no overconfidence- is what really sticks out about the book though. he really believed his own propaganda that he was the gray eyed man of Destiny

Fascinating

This guy is unbelievable, I can’t believe I never heard of this man before this book. The book is well written, and well narrated. I finished it in two days. If you’re considering reading it just do it you won’t regret it.

The full story of William Walker and his insurgent wars

So William Walker is essentially a man who gathered mostly Americans as a small army and tried to take over the Sonora state of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras back in the 18th century. This book is a straight telling of how it happened and the reaction of the U.S. public and the various governments. Really it is war focused as the beginning of the book is basically a short explain if his background before he got into the newspaper game. The ending just ends with his death and really after thoughts on how his activities ended up effect US policy today, which is a shame.
Also the last part of the book seems to remember to show Walker has having thoughts and feelings beyond being just a soldier, which were racist thoughts. But this book is good on Walker’s war and a good scope of his life and events beyond a Wikipedia entry