Drift : The Unmooring of American Military Power (eBook)
by Rachel Maddow

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Language: English

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  Drift (Paperback)
  Published: 2013-03-04
  Publisher: Broadway Books
$12.99 24 copies from $10.46
  Drift (Audio Compact Disc - Unabridged)
  Published: 2012-03-27
  Publisher: Random House Audio
$29.75 11 copies from $21.93
  Drift (Audio - Unabridged)
  Published: 2012-03-01
  Publisher: Findaway World
$59.99
 
 
 
Overview

The #1 New York Times bestseller that charts America's dangerous drift into a state of perpetual war.

"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 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 seri­ously 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.

From the Hardcover edition.

 
 
 
Details
  • ISBN: 9780307461001
  • Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
  • Imprint: Crown
  • Date: Mar 2012
  • Seller Statement: Sold by Random House, Inc.
 
 
 
Creators

Author: Rachel Maddow
Bio:  

Rachel Maddow has hosted the Emmy Award--winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC since 2008. Before that, she was at Air America Radio for the duration of that underappreciated enterprise. She has a doctorate in politics from Oxford and a bachelor's degree in public policy from Stanford. She lives in rural western Massachusetts and New York City with her partner, artist Susan Mikula, and an enormous dog.

 
 
 
Reviews

"Thank Ms. Maddow for picking this and every other fight that Drift provokes. It will be a smarter public debate than the kinds we're used to."--Janet Maslin, New York Times

"A biting, bracing tour of the rise of American military bloat...Her fix-it ideas aren't facile or smiley-faced. They are a coda to the serious project she's taken on--a project that both plays to her persona and gives it new gravitas...Rachel, if you can get those ideas a serious hearing, you will be much more than TV's funniest wonk."--Emily Bazelon, Slate.com

"Maddow's distinctive voice in Drift is highly intelligent, often incredulous and intermittently and humorously profane...Her thesis, which is passionately and effectively articulated, remind[s] us of how far we have drifted from linking the sacrifices of our armed forces around the world to the citizens at home they so selflessly serve... Maddow...[has] provided readers with a timely and perhaps necessary provocation to examine the far-reaching consequences of the American way of war."--Gordon M. Goldstein, Washington Post

"Crosses partisan lines and deals with issues that deserve a healthy debate...A compelling, intelligent read filled with Maddow's trademark wit."--Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times

"Even though she's an ideological broadcaster, Maddow doesn't resort to demonization and hyperbole. It makes her case much stronger."--Conor Friedersdorf, TheAtlantic.com

"Lively but serious...This book is a reminder that before Maddow became a face on nighttime television, she was a Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in politics at Oxford. But Drift is not heavy reading, and her cheerfully snarky voice is instantly recognizable...A thought-provoking and timely book."--Scott Shane, New York Times Book Review

"Full of head-smacking stories about America's military meddling and muddling...Maddow sounds an alarm this country needs to hear more than almost any other." - Catherine Lutz, San Francisco Chronicle

"Thoroughly researched...Written in her signature broadcast style--provocative, satirical, passionate-bordering-on-outrage...Progressive fans of her show may already know what to expect. Yet the book still surprises." - Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Recommended reading...There's a deadly serious argument here that deserves way more attention than it gets."--Kevin Drum, MotherJones.com "Engaging but sobering...With the same kind of substance, wit and charge that make her TV show a top-rated Emmy winner, Maddow details how dubious wars, the exploding "privatization" of the military and a superfunded, superpowered security leviathan have drained our resources...Sometimes it takes a gutsy, determined woman--a Nellie Bly, Rachel Carson, Ida Tarbell, Elizabeth Neuffer, Molly Ivins or Rachel Maddow--to hang a literary lantern on a revolting situation." - Austin American-Statesman

"Drift is infused with Maddow's sharp wit and her vast political knowledge. She dexterously reveals how we became the nation that spends more money on militarism then all other nations combined..."The path to American amnesia is worth recalling on this Memorial Day," wrote Tom Englehardt. If you want to jog your memory, I encourage you to dive into Maddow's brilliant testament to remembering." - MsMagazine.com

"Drift
is a provocative, important book that displays all the qualities of its author: intelligence, humor, depth, and originality. Maddow raises vital questions about how the American ways of war have changed and endangered our democracy, but she does so without cant or predictability. America's most charismatic liberal has crafted here an argument for skepticism about our military-industrial complex that will persuade many conservatives--a remarkable achievement." - STEVE COLL, author of Ghost Wars

"With her savage wit, dazzling command of facts, and eye for the absurd, Maddow tells the epic story of how American warfare came t - NAOMI KLEIN, author of The Shock Doctrine

 
 
 
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