American War Machine

A sweeping history of the vast military and industrial complex behind America’s unmatched power on the world stage, from the Eisenhower presidency to Trump

In January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation, in which he famously warned of the potential dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” Eisenhower’s words resonate decades later, at a time of new wars, new global rivalries, emerging technologies, and a new breed of tech-sector weapons contractors. American War Machine is the definitive history of this sprawling defense complex from the end of World War II to today.

Drawing on a wealth of new research, acclaimed historian Mark Wilson describes how the balance of government-industry relations started to shift in the early decades of the Cold War under the sway of figures like Boeing CEO Bill Allen and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, whose efforts reduced public oversight and investment. Buoyed by bailouts under Nixon and increased defense spending under Reagan, the military-industrial complex became more profit driven as public trust eroded amid allegations of fraud and waste. Taking the story up to the present day, Wilson traces how post–Cold War retrenchment and conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan ushered in both greater consolidation and the outsourcing of everything from logistics to security. Today, Silicon Valley upstarts like SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril pose new opportunities and risks as they compete with legacy contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

American War Machine reveals how privatization and financialization have transformed the business and politics of war since the 1950s, and how these changes reflect shifting attitudes among the nation’s leaders about the proper balance between public and private power.