1898: PRELUDE TO A CENTURY, by John A. Corry, Fordham University Press, 355 pages, $24.95.
The author of this account notes, “Once in a while, a year delineates a series of important events, some crucial in their own right and others for their effect on the future.” Corry discusses some of the central figures of 1898, including Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, President William McKinley, and Commodore George Dewey, as he recounts the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War and the acquisition of territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, which marked the country’s first step toward becoming a world power.