Drift The Unmooring of American Military Power [Paperback]

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

Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow'sDriftargues 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.One of theWashington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction for 2012
One ofKirkus Reviews’ Best Nonfiction Books of 2012

“Thank Ms. Maddow for picking this and every other fight thatDriftprovokes. 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 inDriftis highly intelligent, oftl™