World War II marked the apogee of industrialized "total war.” Great powers savaged one another. Hostilities engulfed the globe. Mobilization extended to virtually every sector of every nation. Air war, including the terror bombing of civilians, emerged as a central strategy of the victorious Anglo-American powers. The devastation was catastrophic almost everywhere, with the notable exception of the United States, which exited the strife unscathed and unmatched in power and influence. The death toll of fighting forces plus civilians worldwide was staggering. The Violent "American Century” addresses the U.S.-led transformations in war conduct and strategizing that followed 1945--beginning with brutal localized hostilities, proxy wars, and the nuclear terror of the Cold War, and ending with the asymmetrical conflicts of the present day. The military playbook now meshes brute force with a focus on non-state terrorism, counterinsurgency, clandestine operations, a vast web of overseas American military bases, and--most touted of all--a revolutionary new era of computerized "precision” warfare. By contrast to World War II, postwar death and destruction has been comparatively small. By any other measure, it has been appalling--and shows no sign of abating. The winner of numerous national prizes for his historical writings, including the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, Dower draws heavily on hard data and internal U.S. planning and pronouncements in this concise analysis of war and terror in our time. In doing so, he places U.S. policy and practice firmly within the broader context of global mayhem, havoc, and slaughter since World War II--always with bottom-line attentiveness to the human costs of this legacy of unceasing violence.
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
In this sweeping and incisive history of US foreign relations, historian Alfred McCoy explores America’s rise as a world power from the 1890s through the Cold War, and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the twenty-first century.
Peter G. Peterson, Running on Empty (New York: Picador, 2005). CHAPTER ONE Imperial Overstretch and Economic Decline We will bankrupt The Beginning and End of the American Century • — -' 1 1.
A stirring indictment of American sentimentality about war.” —Robert G. Kaiser, The Washington Post In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing ...
The winning bidder—the only qualified bidder, in fact—was a joint venture of the Utah Construction Company, which had made its name laying track for the Union Pacific Railroad, and a firm owned by Harry Morrison, a former Reclamation ...
Coney Island: the name still resonates with a sense of racy Brooklyn excitement, the echo of beach-front popular entertainment before World War I. Amusing the Million examines the historical context in which Coney Island made its reputation ...
Dan Mauk went to see her. Dorothy's initial reaction was not what people such as Peggy Scherer, Father Gneuhs, or Michael Harank (the last two both gay men) were hoping for. At first, somewhat rattled, she quoted St. Paul as she often ...
His story is thus the story of America during its era of supremacy: its strength, drive, and sense of possibility, as well as its penchant for overreach and heedless self-confidence.
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND THE EAST HAMPTON STAR “Margaret MacMillan has produced another seminal work. . . . She is right that we must, more than ever, think about war.
Former U.S. Special Forces veteran turned antiwar political activist Goffrings an idiosyncratic point of view and tone to his critique of U.S.oreign policy, much of which hinges on the idea that the complex system thats global capitalism is ...