Book Description
In this provocative book, Andrew Bacevich warns of a dangerous dual obsession that has taken hold of Americans, conservatives, and liberals alike. It is a marriage of militarism and utopian ideology--of unprecedented military might wed to a blind faith in the universality of American values. This mindset, the author warns, invites endless war and the ever-deepening militarization of U.S. policy. It promises not to perfect but to pervert American ideals and to accelerate the hollowing out of American democracy. As it alienates others, it will leave the United States increasingly isolated. It will end in bankruptcy, moral as well as economic, and in abject failure. With The New American Militarism, which has been updated with a new Afterword, Bacevich examines the origins and implications of this misguided enterprise. He shows how American militarism emerged as a reaction to the Vietnam War. Various groups in American society--soldiers, politicians on the make, intellectuals, strategists, Christian evangelicals, even purveyors of pop culture--came to see the revival of military power and the celebration of military values as the antidote to all the ills besetting the country as a consequence of Vietnam and the 1960s. The upshot, acutely evident in the aftermath of 9/11, has been a revival of vast ambitions and certainty, this time married to a pronounced affinity for the sword. Bacevich urges us to restore a sense of realism and a sense of proportion to U.S. policy. He proposes, in short, to bring American purposes and American methods--especially with regard to the role of the military--back into harmony with the nation's founding ideals.
Customer Reviews:
Timely and Thought-Provoking.......2007-08-27
The best books are those that challenge conventional thinking and have the intellectual weight to back up that challenge. This book is one of those. The author, a Vietnam vet and West Pointer, has the credentials and knows the military from the inside, which gives his argument particular strength and provides the reader with information not otherwise easily available. Is it really necessary that the United States have a military machine as large as it does? In these troubled times, that's a view that wins easy assent. But this book will make you think twice.
scholarly, insightful, balanced--- a must read.......2007-07-23
It is impossible for me to start this review without remembering that Lt. Andrew Bacevich, the author's son, died in Iraq in May 2007. Lt. Bacevich and his family are in my prayers.
It was a moving article concerning his son (Wash. Post) that motivated me to look into Prof. Bacevich's writings and this title seemed to promise some answers for questions I've had for many years. How did we become such a militaristic society? How did we come to exalt military power and action so far above economic and diplomatic power in the world?
The book covers the American growth of militarism devoting a chapter to each influential element. It starts with a look at the Wilsonian vision of a world remade in America's image. I found the chapters about our military officer corps from an inside perspective and the one on the neocon movement particularly illuminating. There are also good chapters on evangelicals and national security thinktanks like the RAND Corporation. The book is mostly focused on post-Vietnam events, but includes information as far back as Woodrow Wilson's presidency.
Throughout the book there are common threads about how the Vietnam experience affected the US. There is also good discussion of how Hollywood and politicians built myths that gave civilians unrealistic ideas of how the military worked. This occurred at a time when the citizen-soldier concept faded away and the all volunteer force came into full development. So with fewer civilians doing mandatory service many civilians had increasingly less personal stake in US military actions and an increasingly inaccurate view of how the military did and should function.
The final chapter puts forth some well thought out solutions to our current situation although some might be difficult to achieve politically. I wish every 2008 presidential candidate would read this book and incorporate ideas from the last chapter into their policy proposals.
This book exceeded my expectations. It has grown and changed my thinking on recent decades of political history and I often reread parts of it. Sometimes I use it just to find a good reference from the extensive bibliographic notes. One area I think Bacevich might have included would have been a more complete summary of US energy policy in recent decades. But that is a minor quibble and the few parts of the book I disagree with are too minor to mention. This is not one of those partisan cheapshot books floating around but is scholarly, balanced and insightful from a thoughtful, independent minded man. It is a must read for anyone that wants to understand the politics and wars of our times.
Makes a point but too much 'neocon' bashing.......2007-06-11
Bacevich makes several valid points to support his thesis about America's new `lust for war'. He uses `neo-con' excessively which detracts from his research and makes his book seem vengeful against conservatives. Despite his obvious bias, he makes a valid argument for his thesis that should be considered. Liberals will agree with his arguments while conservatives will complain about being bashed. Both seem to be correct.
Support The Troops At Any Price Is Recipe For Failure.......2007-04-08
An eye-opening read for the layman to understand the many negative consequences of the effort to save the American military in the Vietnam, Bachevich spares no punches in eviscerating political generals (Wes Clark, Colin Powell, Tommy Franks) who've undermined the civil-military relationship over the years from within and the politicians who've wrecked it from outside the Pentagon. One can sense in the bloody defeat (or stalemate we can hope) of Iraq the need for military and political leaders to seriously consider the criticisms Bacevich makes as well as the prescriptions for progress he offers at the end. The latter are the true heart of the book (from disbanding the service academies and integrating the military back onto college campuses to restoring the National Guard to its intended role), especially for military professionals, as well as the rich array of sources he utilizes to strengthen his arguments.
Overall, a creative and noble effort to salvage honor and hope from the agony of corruption and misdirection.
Interesting critique of American militarism.......2007-03-04
Andrew Bacevich, a military veteran and self-described conservative, has written a hard-hitting, though-provoking work. His very first paragraph lays out what is at stake in this book (p. ix): "This is a book about the new American militarism--the misleading and dangerous conceptions of war, soldiers, and military institutions that have come to pervade the American consciousness and that have perverted present-day U. S. national security policy." He goes on, in the introductory comments, to note that contemporary leaders often overreach, being caught in their own hubris. He notes (p. xii): "What is most striking about the most powerful man in the world [the President of the United States] is not the power that he wields. It is how constrained he and his lieutenants are by forces that lie beyond their grasp and perhaps their understanding."
He argues that Vietnam's legacy has included the empowering of neoconservatives, the religious right, and others in coming to believe that the United States ought to project military might to advance its interests. He observes how Ronald Regan's presidency exemplified this bent. This has led to a naïve view as to what military power can do. In his view, this faith has led the United States to move in a direction contrary to some of the most important figures in American history, such as George Washington.
He concludes by quoting President Washington, as he left public life. Washington is quoted as saying that Americans ought to be leery of (p. 224): ". . .those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty." Nothing need be added to Washington's words to highlight what Bacevich believes is "at stake."
His suggestions as to how the United States might address this may not be convincing to readers, but he does engage those readers in an important dialogue. For that alone, this book is to be accorded much appreciation.
Book Description
This wide-ranging, interdisciplinary analysis blends history, economics, and politics to challenge most of the prevailing accounts of the rise of U.S. militarism. While acknowledging the contributory role of some of the most widely-cited culprits (big oil, neoconservative ideology, the Zionist lobby, and President Bush's world outlook), this study explores the bigger, but largely submerged, picture: the political economy of war and militarism. The study is unique not only for its thorough examination of the economics of military spending, but also for its careful analysis of a series of closely related topics (petroleum, geopolitics, imperialism, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, the war in Iraq, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict) that may appear as digressions but, in fact, help shed more light on the main investigation.
Customer Reviews:
A must reading for all Americans!.......2007-08-12
Professor Hossein-zadeh takes over where the late Seymour Melman left off, showing the absurdity & perils of military spending. Those of you familar with Melman, who was a professor of industrial engineering at Columbia University know that time & time again in his many books, he demonstrated how ludicrous defense spending had become through numerous examples. The money spent on "overkill", the cost overuns, the many uneeded military projects, expensive quality control problems coupled with system & hardware failures are just several he often reiterated.
Dr. Hossein-zadeh takes the subject a bit further & in a new direction. He is backed by irrefutable statistics, documents & history itself to prove his case against excessive & unwarrented military spending. All of it very comprehensible, even to someone with no background in economics & a minute knowledge post WW2 history. By reading this book, one can gain some insight into the modus operandi of the military-industrial complex & its the effect it has on the economy,political establishment & both domestic & foreign policy.
A study of the power of the US "defense" industry.......2007-04-04
I loved it. It's packed with explicit information on the tight relationship and revolving door between war profiteers and government officials--they're often one and the same--naming names and providing dollar amounts and sources of information. When you study this book, you will gain an understanding of what motivates the neocons to start wars. Money makes the world go around: you will learn a great deal about why the current US administration bombed Afghanistan, then Iraq, and now appears to be aimed at Iran. Why would anyone want never-ending war?
Hossein-zadeh points out that it is the industrial part of the military-industrial complex that is most problematic because it is driven by the profit motive.
I happen to disagree with Hossein-zadeh in that I think the oil transnationals also want wars in the Middle East. (He says these entities prefer stability.) This difference in views detracts nothing, however, from his analysis of the military-industrial aspect of these conflicts.
I'm a writer and use this book as a reference.
I hope it comes out in paperback so more people can afford it.
Brings facts together in one place and gives cogent analysis.......2007-01-12
This book brings together lots of individual facts, statistics, and citations that those with a concern about US militarism who attentively follow current events and recent US history will have come upon in disparate locations.
The genius of the book is that it puts all of this information in one place and presents it in a coherent structure. It is also very clearly written. The citations and bibliography are useful starting points for those wishing to delve more deeply into the economic underpinnings of the military-industrial complex.
handsome butcher.......2007-01-10
most comprehencive ,well documented,well researched book exposing the essence of our heartless government subserviant to the demands of giant corporations sacrificing the ones it is elected to protect.
Empire's Pricetag.......2006-12-20
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh's The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism will greatly surprise readers who imagine that what lies between its covers is an abstruse economics argument or a rant against the war in Iraq. This accessible, lucid, and generously documented approach to the history of military engagement by the United States since World War II clearly is written with a mainstream audience in mind although its hardcover price of $80 is out of the average reader's ballpark. Hopefully libraries will pick up the title since every taxpayer deserves the chance to consider Hossein-Zadeh's thesis. In short, he demonstrates that although the economic gains of imperialism might have supported required military outlays for a period, there comes a time in every empire's life when further expansion no longer is cost-effective for the metropole and becomes a drain on the national economy. At this point, the war industry becomes "parasitic" as the dividends of empire fall more and more disproportionately into the laps of those associated with military efforts. Hossein-Zadeh considers the current period in U.S. history such a time.
Readers may have heard this claim before. But few if any will have met such a persuasive presentation of it. The book is extremely helpful in how it identifies and then dismantles what Hossein-Zadeh considers weak explanations for why the United States continues to engage in military intervention and expansion abroad. The first is the widespread theory among liberals that the neoconservative element of the U.S. political scene is attempting to take advantage of the absence of a comparable world power in order to spread American values and free market economics. The second is that George Bush is spearheading military adventurism as a result of the need to pose as a "war president" so as to mask the failings of his administration. The third is that America's Zionist lobbyists are championing the war on Iraq in order to shore up U.S. support of Israel. The fourth (and Hossein-Zadeh considers this the most widespread assumption of all) is that the United States is engaging, in the case of Iraq and other Middle Eastern adventures, in military action in order to better control the world's oil resources. Hossein-Zadeh acknowledges and discusses each of these theories, ultimately discarding them as the driving force behind continued U.S. military imperialism.
Instead, he suggests that the military imperialism we are witnessing today "can be seen largely as reflections of the metaphorical fights over allocation of the public finance at home, of a subtle or insidious strategy to redistribute national resources in favor of the wealthy, to cut public spending on socioeconomic infrastructures, and to reverse the New Deal reforms by expanding military spending." Survival of the working man and woman aside, also at stake is the question of which cabal of capitalists will come out on top--the neoliberal multilateralists who favor globalization--that is, the expansion of free markets throughout the world in order to make way for the products of multinationals largely unconnected with war, or the unilateralists, who tend to be linked to the military industry and to other industries that are not competitive in the international marketplace.
In addition to providing engaging economic explanations and political commentary such as those already mentioned, Hossein-Zadeh offers a number of other helpful analyses. He makes a distinction between the military bureaucracies of past empires--e.g., Rome--and America's present-day military industry, which reflects the imperatives of an advanced capitalist economy. Bearing in mind this distinction, he suggests, unlike many who see the United States as declining in the mode of Rome, that decline of the United States more likely would follow that of the British Empire. He points out that multilateralists have in no way been eliminated by unilateralists; rather, leading capitalist countries tend to experience alternating periods characterized by resurgence and diminution of the importance of these two poles. He also acknowledges the benefits of the military industry on an economy such as that of the United States. Finally, as an Iranian-American he offers a unique perspective in terms of political economy on the issue of religious fundamentalism and the fraught relations between the West and the Muslim world. Ismael Hossein-Zadeh's The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism is a fascinating text and one that deserves to be as accessible to the average pocketbook as it is to the average reader.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Military Review, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1678 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The New American Militarism.(The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War)(Book Review)
Author: Kevin C.M. Benson
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Military Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 85
Issue: 6
Page: 87(2)
Article Type: Book Review
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The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War.(Book Review) : An article from: Independent Review
Edward A. Olsen
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This digital document is an article from Independent Review, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1464 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War.(Book Review)
Author: Edward A. Olsen
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Independent Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
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This digital document is an article from Parameters, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2005. The length of the article is 2461 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War.(Book Review)
Author: Robert B. Killebrew
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Parameters (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2005
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Volume: 35
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This digital document is an article from Armor, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1781 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War.
Author: Kevin C.M. Benson
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Armor (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 116
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This digital document is an article from The National Interest, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2005. The length of the article is 2191 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: Resisting the charms of war.(The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War)(Book Review)
Author: Christopher Preble
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The National Interest (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2005
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Taming the beast.(book by Andrew J. Bacevich)(Book Review) : An article from: Commonweal
Alan Wolfe
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Title: Taming the beast.(book by Andrew J. Bacevich)(Book Review)
Author: Alan Wolfe
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Commonweal (Magazine/Journal)
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This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Phi Beta Kappa Society on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 1630 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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Title: What is it good for? How the U.S. military went from defense to offense.(Book Review)
Author: James Webb
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American Scholar (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Phi Beta Kappa Society
Volume: 74
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Page: 135(5)
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Book Description
In this volume Europe’s leading modern historians offer new insights into two totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century that have profoundly affected world history—Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. Until now historians have paid more attention to the similarities between these two regimes than to their differences. Stalinism and Nazism explores the difficult relationship between the history and memory of the traumas inflicted by Nazi and Soviet occupation in several Eastern European countries in the twentieth century.
The first part of the volume explores the origins, nature, and organization of Hitler’s and Stalin’s dictatorial power, the manipulation of violence by the state systems, and the comparative power of the dictator’s personal will and the encompassing totalitarian system. The second part examines the legacies of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes in Eastern European countries that experienced both. Stalinism and Nazism features the latest critical perspectives on two of the most influential and deadly political regimes in modern history.
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Terminology of Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation (A World Bank Unicef Glossary)
Paul J. Biron
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ASIN: 0821305859 |
Books:
- The Peoples of the British Isles: A New History : From Prehistoric Times to 1688
- The Rational Choice Controversy in Historical Sociology
- The Religious Dimension in the Thought of Giambattista Vico: 1668-1744 : Language, Law and History (Studies in the History of Philosophy)
- The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century
- The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War
- The Whitman Massacre of 1847
- Ultra in the Atlantic: U-Boat Operations (Intelligence Series , Vol 2, No 12)
- Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia, England, 1829 (The Royal Diaries)
- Vida, Naturaleza Y Ciencia Todo Lo Que Hay Que Saber
- Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History)
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