The Emergency State

America's Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs

By: David C. Unger

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

In The Emergency State, leading global affairs commentator David C. Unger reveals the hidden costs of America's obsessive pursuit of absolute national security. In the decades since World War II, presidents from both parties have assumed broad war-making powers never intended by the Constitution and intervened abroad to preserve our credibility rather than our security, while trillions of tax dollars have been diverted from essential domestic needs to the Pentagon. Yet ironically, this pursuit has not just damaged our democracy and undermined our economic strength - it has also failed to make us safer.

In a penetrating work of historical analysis, Unger explains how this narrow-minded emphasis on security came to distort our political life and shows how we can change course. As Unger reminds us, in the first 150 years of the American republic, the United States valued limited military intervention abroad and the checks and balances put in place by the founding fathers. Yet American history took a sharp turn during World War II, when we began to build a vast and cumbersome complex of national security institutions, reflexes, and beliefs. Originally designed to wage hot war against Germany and cold war against the Soviet Union, our security bureaucracy is no longer effective at confronting the elusive, non–state-supported threats we now face.

The Emergency State traces a series of missed opportunities - from the so-called Year of Intelligence in 1975 to the end of the cold war to 9/11 - when we could have paused to rethink our defense strategy and didn't. We have ultimately failed to dismantle our outdated national security state, Unger argues, because both parties are equally responsible for its expansion. While countless books have exposed the damage wrought by George W. Bush's war on terror, Unger shows it was only the natural culmination of decades of bipartisan emergency state logic - and argues that Obama, along with many previous Democratic presidents, has failed to shift course in any meaningful way.In this provocative and incisive book, Unger proposes a radically different paradigm that would better address our security needs while also working to reverse the damage done to our democratic institutions and economic vitality.

©2012 David C. Unger (P)2012 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Unger's broad indictment of defense policy bipartisan if not nonpartisan is sure to spark considerable and worthy debate." ( Publishers Weekly)

A new and insightful take

on the last 70 years of American foreign policy, tying together our behavior abroad and our condition at home. An eye-opening read.

Do we want to trade liberty for security?

Why didn't we reign in military spending after the end of the cold war? Why do we accept unconstitutional laws like the Patriot Act (allows the goverment to spy on us) and latest unconstitutional Defense Appropriation Bill (Lets the military arrest and detain civilians indefinitely)? Because the Military/Industrial Complex keeps us in a state of fear.

We'll written history of how the government keeps us under control and the money flowing into the pockets of defense contractors.

Horrible narration

I have no doubt that the historical events presented in this book are accurate. I can also see a correlation between the author's interpretation of those events and an "emergency state" view. The reason I scored the book so low is that I just could not get into the book no matter how hard I tried.

The way the story was told, and the audio narration, left my mind constantly wondering.

I cannot recommend this one.