Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

by Rachel Maddow

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

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. 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, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the scope of American military power to overpower our political discourse. 

Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri­ously funny, Drift reinvigorates a "loud and jangly" political debate about our vast and confounding national security state.

• ISBN10: 0307460983
• ISBN13: 9780307460981
• Publish Date: 27 March 2012
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 8 August 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Crown Publishing Group, Division of Random House Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

I really wanted to read Rachel Maddow's book, but military history wasn't really in my realm of interests and I kept putting it off. I ended up being fascinated by it though, and Rachel delivered the information in her familiar, to-the-point, laying things out piece-by-piece style that I love so much. Jesus Christ was Reagan an idiot.

[Beth C.]

Explains SO MANY THINGS. Seriously. And demonstrates that no matter how golden your idols may be, chances are, they have clay feet. Oh, also shows the selective power of memory....