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We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

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Drift

the unmooring of American military power
Rachel Maddow

‘Drift is a tale well told, a compelling read. For Australians, it has a particular significance: citizens of a country so inclined to march arm in arm with our powerful ally need to understand how and why the US decides to wage war.’

Paul Barratt, former head of Australia’s department of defence

When Thomas Jefferson spoke of ‘never keeping an unnecessary soldier’, neither he nor America’s other founding fathers could have envisaged the national security state that the country has become. They could not have imagined 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 America has drifted away from its original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today’s war in Afghanistan, exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American soldiers in the military, and even the changing fortunes of GI Joe. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we all stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower political discourse.

Sensible yet provocative, deadly serious yet seriously funny, Drift has already reinvigorated a political debate about how, when, and where America’s strength and power should be applied — and who gets to make those decisions.

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 198mm × 128mm

Extent:304pp

ISBN (13):9781921844966

RRP:$24.99

Pub date:2 Jul 2012

Rights Held: ANZ

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

CATEGORIES / tags

Politics & government POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General International relations Warfare & defence Military history: post WW2 conflicts POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General HISTORY / Military / United States HISTORY / United States / General

AUTHOR

Rachel Maddow

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.

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