Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

by Maddow, Rachel (Author)

There's a war going on, argues Maddow: a battle between the priorities of civilian life and of the war machine, and right now the national security sector is winning--leaving the United States less strong and secure. In Drift, Maddow shows how deeply militarized our culture has become--how the role of the national security sector has shape-shifted and grown over the past century to the point of being financially unsustainable and confused in mission.

Format: Hardcover, 288 pages

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY) (View Publishe, March 2012

Product Dimensions: 8.3 L × 5.7 W × 1.1 H

Publisher Marketing: Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse.

Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri-ously funny, Drift will reinvigorate a loud and jangly political debate about how, when, and where to apply America's strength and power--and who gets to make those decisions.

* Subject to availability