Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire

Few United States citizens conceive of their country as an empire, but, as the contributors to Masters of War convincingly argue, the U.S. legacy of military power runs long and deep. Often mobilized in the name of spreading democracy, maintaining international order, and creating the conditions for economic self-determination, constantly expanding global U.S. military power is difficult to characterize as anything but an imperialism bent on global domination. However, at the same time that the U.S. government hawks rhetoric of human rights and national sovereignty, its dominion has begun breeding widespread resistance and opposition likely to make the twenty-first century an era marked by sustained, and generally unanticipated, blowback. Presenting a wide range of essays by some of the anti-war movement’s most vocal and incisive critics, Masters of War reminds us that worldwide economic and military dominance has its price, both globally and domestically.

Carl Boggs is Professor of Social Sciences at National University in Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous publications including The End of Politics: CorporatePower and the Decline of the Public Sphere.