the garrison state
In looking for ways to start this review over the book In The Shadow Of The Garrison State, I ran across and excerpt of a review by the publisher of the book a professor with the Princeton University Press in which he states "War--or the threat of war--usually strengthens states as governments tax, draft soldiers, exert control over industrial production, and dampen internal dissent in order to build military might. The United States, however, was founded on the suspicion of state power, a suspicion that continued to gird its institutional architecture and inform the sentiments of many of its politicians and citizens through the twentieth century. In this comprehensive rethinking of postwar political history, Aaron Friedberg convincingly argues that such anti-statist inclinations prevented Cold War anxieties from transforming the United States into the garrison state it might have become in their absence. Drawing on an array of primary and secondary sources, including newly a!vailable archival materials, Friedberg concludes that the "weakness" of the American state served as a profound source of national strength that allowed the United States to outperform and outlast its supremely centralized and statist rival: the Soviet Uni
In terms of out lasting them. In the review the author and publisher make a comment to the extent to say that the reason why we never became a nation state and out lasted the Russians was because of these freedoms which we I have mentioned before. I totally disagree with this assessment. With a nation such as the Soviet Union we know that there economy was less that adequate to sustain a test of economic strength, especially with no real signs of an industrial base strong enough to sustain there country or its growth. Ultimately I feel that they went bankrupt and could not continue to match us any longer in their attempt to establish the greater nation. Kind of a childhood squabble over who has more stuff is cooler. He who has the toys is the coolest kind in school, so to speak. It is these childhood feelings that makes this such and interesting topic and at the same time make this issue to seem so childish and trivial at the same time. Friedberg's analysis of the U. S. government's approach to taxation, conscription, industrial planning, scientific research and development, and armaments manufacturing reveals that the American state did expand during the early Cold War period. But domestic constraints on its expansion--including those stemming from mean self-interest as well as those guided by a principled belief in the virtues of limiting federal power--protected economic vitality, technological superiority, and public support for Cold War activities. The strategic synthesis that emerged by the early 1960s was functional as well as stable, enabling the United States to deter, contain, and ultimately outlive the Soviet Union precisely because the American state did not limit unduly the political, personal, and economic freedom of its citizens. With these notions I agree hardly. I think that it was these key factors, which aided in our ability to outlive the Russians so to speak. Naturally Public opinion had a major contribution to this but I think that such support was only necessary in the later years when the treat of communism*s spread was all but gone and McCarthyism was no longer relevant. With out these fears in the American public we as a nation, I think needed a new enemy and found that not with the communist*s but with the Russians. Through out our nations history we have always needed a common enemy to untie our nation, once the red scare was over we only had opinions and who better to hate than our closest co
Some common words found in the essay are:
Cold War, Soviet Union, Industrial Complex, Naturally Public, Press War--or, Friedberg Princeton, FDR Truman, Shadow Garrison, Aaron Friedberg, cold war, , nations history, soviet union, military industrial complex, ultimately feel, bang buck, industrial complex, bigger bang, popular sovereignty, bigger bang buck, foreign affairs, military industrial,
Approximate Word count = 1669
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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