Unwarranted influence

In Dwight D. Eisenhowerʹs last speech as president, on January 17, 1961, he warned America about the "military-industrial complex," a mutual dependency between the nationʹs industrial base and its military structure that had developed during World War II. After the conflict ended, the nation did not abandon its wartime economy but rather the opposite. Military spending has steadily increased, giving rise to one of the key ideas that continues to shape our countryʹs political landscape. In this book, published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Eisenhowerʹs farewell address, journalist James Ledbetter shows how the government, military contractors, and the nationʹs overall economy have become inseparable. Some of the effects are beneficial, such as cell phones, GPS systems, the Internet, and the Hubble Space Telescope, all of which emerged from technologies first developed for the military. But the military-industrial complex has also provoked agonizing questions. Does our massive military establishment--bigger than those of the next ten largest combined--really make us safer? How much of our perception of security threats is driven by the profit-making motives of military contractors? To what extent is our foreign policy influenced by contractorsʹ financial interests? -- Publisher description.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.