 |
|
|
Item Details
| Title:
|
STATE OF WAR
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AMERICAN WARFARE, 1945-2011 |
| By: |
Paul A. C. Koistinen |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
|
£59.00 |
|
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
further information.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ISBN 10: |
0700618740 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780700618743 |
| Publisher: |
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS |
| Pub. date: |
15 August, 2012 |
| Pages: |
320 |
| Description: |
The fifth and final volume in the author's sweeping study of the political economy of American warfare. Describes the bipolar world that developed from the rivalry between the U.S. and USSR and shows how seventy years of defense spending have bred a monster that has sunk its claws into the very fabric of American life. |
| Synopsis: |
In his farewell speech, President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned us of the dangers of a military-industrial complex (MIC). In Paul Koistinen's sobering new book, that warning appears to have been both prophetic and largely ignored. As the final volume in his magisterial study of the political economy of American warfare, State of War describes the bipolar world that developed from the rivalry between the U.S. and USSR, showing how seventy years of defence spending have bred a monster that has sunk its claws into the very fabric of American life. Koistinen underscores how during the second half of the twentieth century and well into the twenty-first, the United States for the first time in its history began to maintain large military structures during peacetime. Many factors led to that result: the American economy stood practically alone in a war-ravaged world; the federal government, especially executive authority, was at the pinnacle of its powers; the military accumulated unprecedented influence over national security; and weaponry became much more sophisticated following World War II.Koistinen describes how the rise of the MIC was preceded by a gradual process of institutional adaptation and then supported and reinforced by the willing participation of Big Science and its industrial partners, the broader academic world, and a proliferation of think tanks. He also evaluates the effects of ongoing defines budgets within the context of the nation's economy since the 1950s. Over time, the MIC effectively blocked efforts to reduce expenditures, control the arms race, improve relations with adversaries, or adopt more enlightened policies toward the developing world--all the while manipulating the public on behalf of national security to sustain the warfare state. Now twenty years after the Soviet Union's demise, defence budgets are higher than at any time during the Cold War. As Koistinen observes, more than six decades of militaristic mobilisation for stabilising a turbulent world have firmly entrenched the state of war as a state of mind for our nation.Collectively, his five-volume opus provides an unparalleled analysis of the economics of America's wars from the colonial period to the present, illuminating its impact upon the nation's military campaigns, foreign policy, and domestic life. |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
University Press of Kansas |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
No Cheese, Please!
A fun picture book for children with food allergies - full of friendship and super-cute characters!Little Mo the mouse is having a birthday party.
|
My Brother Is a Superhero
Luke is massively annoyed about this, but when Zack is kidnapped by his arch-nemesis, Luke and his friends have only five days to find him and save the world...
|
|
|
|
|