Robert K. Sutton & Jonathan M. Katz: A Conversation

Jonathan M. Katz is a journalist and author. His first book, The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster, was a PEN Literary Award finalist and won the Overseas Press Club of America’s Cornelius Ryan Award for the year’s best book on international affairs. He is also a recipient of the James Foley/Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Foreign Policy, and other publications. In Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire (St. Martin’s Press), Katz traces the story of the most celebrated warfighter of his time. Butler went wherever the flag went. He served in nearly every major overseas conflict from the Spanish War of 1898 until the eve of World War II. He helped annex the Philippines and the land for the Panama Canal, led troops in China (twice), and helped invade and occupy Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Mexico. Yet in retirement, Butler turned against the war, big business, and imperialism, declaring: “I was a racketeer for capitalism.” Gangsters traces the rise of the U.S. global empire in the early 20th century and its legacies today.

Robert K. Sutton is the author of Stark Mad Abolitionists: Lawrence, Kansas and the Battle Over Slavery in the Civil War Era and a former chief historian of the National Park Service who retired in 2016 after a 33-year career. On his first day on the job as chief historian, he met with the team interviewing veterans who had served at Fort Hunt, encouraging them to continue interviewing as many veterans as possible. Nazis on the Potomac: The Top Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II (Casemate) brings those stories to life. Fort Hunt, Virginia, about 15 miles south of Washington, D.C., was the site of one of the highest-level covert operations during World War II. Shortly after the United States entered the war, the military established a secret facility that would interrogate and eavesdrop on Nazi prisoners and translate and analyze captured German war documents. Known as P.O. Box 1142, the complex and the work that took place there was instrumental in leading the Allies to victory in the war against Hitler. Nazis on the Potomac is the first book to describe 1142’s role.