2011/01/11 by Nick Kapur · 6 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #American History and Culture #Asian American and Pacific Histories #Race, History, and American Society
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2010.03829.x
openalex publication_date 2011/01/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Prevailing interpretations of the causes of the Spanish‐American War emphasize the role of yellow journalism, business interests, or congressional politics in forcing President William McKinley into a war that he neither sought nor wanted. This article reexamines McKinley's decision making in the months leading up to the Spanish‐American War in the context of “Victorian” values, such as arbitrationism, pacifism, humanitarianism, and manly self‐restraint, and argues that McKinley's actions were based more on these values than on external pressures. A closer look at the evidence suggests that McKinley's speech before Congress on April 11, 1898, may have been more a moment of unprecedented presidential power than a showing of personal weakness.