Awards

• Short-listed for Grammy Awards (Spoken Word) (Spoken Word Album) 2013

Overview

"The #1 New York Times bestseller that charts America s dangerous drift into a state of perpetual war. ""One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier,"" Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Founders could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with 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 we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. 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 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. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse. Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seriously funny, ""Drift ""will reinvigorate a ""loud and jangly"" political debate about how, when, and where to apply America's strength and power--and who gets to make those decisions. ""From the Hardcover edition."""""

Full Product Details

9780307970381

Table of Contents

Reviews

Thank Ms. Maddow for picking this and every other fight that Drift provokes. It will be a smarter public debate than the kinds we're used to. <br>--Janet Maslin, New York Times <p> 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. <br>--Emily Bazelon, Slate.com<p> Crosses partisan lines and deals with issues that deserve a healthy debate...A compelling, intelligent read filled with Maddow's trademark wit. <br>--Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times <p> Even though she's an ideological broadcaster, Maddow doesn't resort to demonization and hyperbole. It makes her case much stronger. <br>--Conor Friedersdorf, TheAtlantic.com<p> Lively but serious...This book is a reminder that before Maddow became a face on nighttime television, she was a Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in politics at Oxford. But Drift is not heavy reading, and her cheerfully snarky voice is instantly recognizable...A thought-provoking and timely book. <br>--Scott Shane, New York Times Book Review Full of head-smacking stories about America's military meddling and muddling...Maddow sounds an alarm this country needs to hear more than almost any other. <br> --Catherine Lutz, San Francisco Chronicle<br> <br> Provocative...Asks fundamental questions about the process by which the U.S. now goes to war that pretty much never get asked by the media. <br>--Wired.com <br> Thoroughly researched...Written in her signature broadcast style--provocative, satirical, passionate-bordering-on-outrage...Progressive fans of her show may already know what to expect. Yet the book still surprises. <br>-- Minneapolis Star Tribune <br> Recommended reading...There's a deadly serious argument here that deserves way more atten

One of the Washington Post 's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction for 2012One of Kirkus Reviews ' Best Nonfiction Books of 2012 Thank Ms. Maddow for picking this and every other fight that Drift provokes. 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 in Drift is highly intelligent, often incredulous and intermittently and humorously profane...Her thesis, which is passionately and effectively articulated, remind[s] us of how far we have drifted from linking the sacrifices of our armed forces around the world to the citizens at home they so selflessly serve... Maddow...[has] provided readers with a timely and perhaps necessary provocation to examine the far-reaching consequences of the American way of war. --Gordon M. Goldstein, Washington Post Crosses partisan lines and deals with issues that deserve a healthy debate...A compelling, intelligent read filled with Maddow's trademark wit. --Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times Even though she's an ideological broadcaster, Maddow doesn't resort to demonization and hyperbole. It makes her case much stronger. --Conor Friedersdorf, TheAtlantic.com Lively but serious...This book is a reminder that before Maddow became a face on nighttime television, she was a Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in politics at Oxford. But Drift is not heavy reading, and her cheerfully snarky voice is instantly recognizable...A thought-provoking and timely book. --Scott Shane, New York Times Book Review Full of head-smacking stories about America's mili

Thank Ms. Maddow for picking this and every other fight that Drift provokes. It will be a smarter public debate than the kinds we're used to. <br>--Janet Maslin, New York Times <p> 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. <br>--Emily Bazelon, Slate.com<p> Crosses partisan lines and deals with issues that deserve a healthy debate...A compelling, intelligent read filled with Maddow's trademark wit. <br>--Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times <p> Even though she's an ideological broadcaster, Maddow doesn't resort to demonization and hyperbole. It makes her case much stronger. <br>--Conor Friedersdorf, TheAtlantic.com<p> Lively but serious...This book is a reminder that before Maddow became a face on nighttime television, she was a Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in politics at Oxford. But Drift is not heavy reading, and her cheerfully snarky voice is instantly recognizable...A thought-provoking and timely book. <br>--Scott Shane, New York Times Book Review Drift is a provocative, important book that displays all the qualities of its author: intelligence, humor, depth, and originality. Maddow raises vital questions about how the American ways of war have changed and endangered our democracy, but she does so without cant or predictability. America's most charismatic liberal has crafted here an argument for skepticism about our military-industrial complex that will persuade many conservatives--a remarkable achievement. <br>--STEVE COLL, author of Ghost Wars <br> With her savage wit, dazzling command of facts, and eye for the absurd, Maddow tells the epic story of how American warfare came to be both never-ending and practically invisible. In the process, she reviv

Author Information

"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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