Drift
The Unmooring of American Military Power
by Rachel Maddow
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Pub Date Mar 27 2012 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012
Crown Publishing Group | Crown Trade
Description
"One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Founders could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with its tens of thousands of "privateers"; its bloated Department of Homeland Security; its rusting nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle; and its strange fascination with an unproven counterinsurgency doctrine.
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 Reagan's radical presidency, the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, and the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us. 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 bracingly 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.
Advance Praise
"In Drift, Rachel Maddow brings her passion, wit, cool common sense, and intellectual firepower to the epic
and darkly farcical story of how America has declined into an overfunded and unchecked national security
state--one that inflicts more damage on America's assets, our military included, than it does on our
adversaries. At a crossroads when Americans of all stripes are rethinking their country's priorities, Maddow's
compelling take on how we drifted into the costly habit of perennial war--and how we might yet reverse
it--could not be more timely."
--FRANK RICH
"Here's this conservative's assessment of Rachel Maddow's Drift: It's scathingly funny, deeply insightful, and
informed throughout by a deep and abiding sense of patriotism. Bravo, Rachel!"
--ANDREW J. BACEVICH, author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War
"Rachel Maddow's Drift is a long overdue and provocative examination of the abuses, excesses, and just plain
foolish elements in our national security systems. These are issues that deserve our attention."
--TOM BROKAW
"Written with the flair for scintillating satire that has endeared Rachel Maddow to liberals and moderates
alike--and infuriated neoconservatives, evangelicals, and some tea partiers--Drift is funny, rich, and right. But
at its end, when you put it down, you will be troubled. We are losing our republic and Ms. Maddow tells you
why."
--LAWRENCE WILKERSON, professor of government and public policy at the College of William and Mary
and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9780307460981 |
| PRICE | |
