"The Warfare State"

A few months ago I was at a gift shop in New Hampshire. They had cheap books, and after clawing through the crappy novels I found to priceless treasures: "You can trust the Communists (To be Communists)," published in 1960; and "The Warfare State," by Fred J. Cook, published in 1962. I borrowed $1.25 off my mom (I was unemployed at the time and quite broke) and brought them home.

Both books cover American history and foreign policy from the same time period: 1945-1960. Our government was quite scared of Communist expansion at the time, and these books cover the topic from opposite viewpoints, a fact I probably didn't need to reinforce. I tried reading "You can trust the Communists..." but everytime I pick it up, I think I'm reading a joke. It's such an overt piece of propaganda where the author gives ridiculous examples to support his biases, and predicts that the USSR would nuke us by 1965. Well, I'm still alive, how about you? Besides the side-splitting value, there's nothing of any intellectual worth in the book. Though I have used the title as a search string on Google, and it returns websites of conservatives who said they read the book in their youth and it effected how they thought of the world and I think to myself, "Aha! So this book is the problem!" Maybe I should burn it out of spite.

I have been reading "The Warfare State" when I get the chance. The book documents the Military-Industrial Complex, it's origins, and how the Military and big coroporations joined hands and took over the government. It's as much a history book as it is a critique of American industial and foreign policy, teaching the reader about the pacifist views of our Founding Fathers who thought it was a danger to national sovereignty if a standing military existed during peacetime, then it goes through military history to show how power hungry our military has always been. This books tands the test of time, and Cook's documenting of the Military-Industrail Complex from WWII to the beginning of the 60's is filled with striking parallels to todays political climate. Frequently while reading, I come across passages that make me say, "Wow, nothing has changed." That's usually followed by, "I should post this to the blog."

Hey, why not? Starting this week, Loaded Mouth will feature passages from "The Warfare State." This will lead into a contest I will annouce later next month. Consider yourself warned and ready to learn about the origins of modern American politic.