Drift

May 28, 2012
Rachel Maddow provides a discomforting exploration of U.S. military power over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, highlighting how various disconnected elements have conspired to create a nation of people with little understanding about the true costs of war. With her experience as a television show host, Maddow is a very capable narrator. Her delivery is clear and her pacing steady. She also skillfully uses emphasis and tone to highlight moments of humor or importance. However, in making her arguments, Maddow may alienate some listeners, particularly when she mocks political figures with whom she disagrees. Though this is clearly an aspect of Maddow’s style, it can be off-putting and works to undercut her ability to reach all but her most loyal fans. A Crown hardcover.

February 20, 2012
A bloated, secretive, lawless national security state is pilloried in this scathing but shallow critique of America’s post-Vietnam defense policies. MSNBC talk-show host Maddow recaps milestones in a decadeslong process of giving presidents dangerously convenient and unaccountable war-making powers: the Reagan administration’s gigantic military buildup, Iran-Contra illegalities, and assertions of executive privilege; the supplanting of soldiers with private contractors under Clinton and Bush fils; the growth of the CIA’s secret drone air force; the many invasions, from Grenada to Iraq, launched by commanders-in-chief without constitutional authority. The author presents sharp, well-supported analyses of these episodes, spicing them with a caustic wit that skewers everything from Army recruitment ads to the Air Force’s habit of accidentally dropping or misplacing its nuclear warheads. She’s less cogent in blaming America’s adventurism on the neglect of the Constitution’s requirement that Congress declare war (many inane conflicts, like the Spanish-American War, passed that hurdle) and the lapse of the tradition of calling up the citizen-soldiers of the Reserves and National Guard, which she believes puts a brake on war-mongering (although the Iraq War call-up, she allows, had no such effect). Maddow’s incisive look at the follies of militarism needs a deeper understanding of why America has so often embraced it. Agent: Laurie Liss, Sterling Lord Literistic.

Starred review from March 1, 2012
In her hard-hitting debut, popular MSNBC host Maddow examines how the country has lost control of its national-security policy. The author holds Dick Cheney, to whom the book is dedicated ("Oh please let me interview you"), responsible for much that has gone wrong, associating the former vice president with the presidential prerogative of war-making powers. Cheney, writes Maddow, had been nursing these ideas since his days as chief of staff to President Gerald Ford, and he elaborated on them in his minority report on congressional investigation into the Iran-Contra affair. American forces are now accompanied by an equal or greater number of private contractors who perform functions that used to be reserved to the military, without either accountability or military control. The author shows how Bill Clinton used contractors extensively in Bosnia to avoid political fallout. These contractors, writes Maddow, typify the way in which the bonds that used to unite the military to the rest of society have been systematically severed, weakening political discussion and control. During the Vietnam War, Gen. Creighton Abrams and others reformed the structure of the military to make going to war without calling up the reserves and the National Guard--thereby guaranteeing national debate--very difficult, but these checks and balances have broken down. Maddow documents how the budgetary element has also gone out of control and raises important questions about the safety of the nuclear arsenal. She grounds her argument in the Founding Fathers' debates about going to war, and how difficult they intended to make the process--a state of affairs that is opposite to what is represented now. With humor and verve, Maddow lays a solid basis for that hoped-for interview with Cheney (fingers crossed).

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Starred review from March 15, 2012

On her MSNBC show, Maddow delights in reminding viewers that she's an infrastructure geek. Now, regarding two manifestations of U.S. infrastructure--the Constitution and our underlying methods, post-JFK, of supporting U.S. military incursions--she shows how we have drifted away from established templates outlining how this country goes to war. She begins with LBJ in Vietnam (he used only active duty servicemen--thus the draft--to avoid Guards and Reserves bringing the war home around the country). From President Carter she segues to President Reagan, studying aspects of his military (mis)deeds in four core chapters. After an analysis of George H.W. Bush and Desert Shield comes her look at "Doing More with Less (Hassle)," a particularly horrifying study of what our outsourcing of military "quality of life services" has wrought. Maddow wears her expertise lightly, counterbalancing hard details with phrases (e.g., "the lemons-into-lemonade-moment" or "the sliding-off-the-aircraft-carrier-thing") that keep her narrative invigorating even as she offers the occasional periodic sentence that would make Gibbon proud. VERDICT Maddow can be sassy, but she's deadly serious. Having noted our executive branch's growing disregard for "the disincentives to war deliberately built into our American system of government," she ends with a to-do list for finding our way back to a reasonable national security state. Highly recommended to all readers engaged in the world today and with how we got here.--Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2012
The U.S. has drifted into a state of military hypervigilance that is wasting enormous sums of money and threatening our economic stability, argues Maddow, host of the MSNBC program that bears her name. She traces the historical roots of concerns about maintaining a standing army and the reliance on citizen-soldiers when needed, creating a reluctance to go to war and an eagerness to end conflicts and send soldiers home. She details how the Cold War threat justified the sanctification of defense spending and the Vietnam War pushed Congress to reassert its exclusive authority to declare war. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, presidents have gained greater latitude in going to war, with little consideration for the implications for the nation's economy or polity, even as citizens become more estranged from the military. Maddow concludes with suggestions on how to turn the trend around, including paying with specific taxes, reversing the privatization of war, and constraining the power of the president to go to war. An insightful look at the cost of military vigilance to ideals of democracy. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The host of the popular The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC has fans in both the Twitter-sphere and among TV watchers, many of whom may cross over to buy her book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)