House of War
The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
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Narrated by:
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Robertson Dean
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By:
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James Carroll
About this listen
To argue his case, he marshals a trove of often chilling evidence. He recounts how "the Building" and its denizens achieved what Eisenhower called "a disastrous rise of misplaced power" from the unprecedented aerial bombing of Germany and Japan during World War II to the "shock and awe" of Iraq. He charts the colossal U.S. nuclear buildup, which far outpaced that of the USSR and has outlived it. He reveals how consistently the Building has found new enemies just as old threats and funding evaporate. He demonstrates how Pentagon policy brought about U.S. indifference to an epidemic of genocide during the 1990s. And he shows how the forces that attacked the Pentagon on 9/11 were set in motion exactly 60 years earlier, on September 11, 1941, when ground was broken for the house of war.
Carroll draws on rich personal experience (his father was a top Pentagon official for more than 20 years) as well as exhaustive research and extensive interviews with Washington insiders, from Robert McNamara to John McCain to William Cohen to John Kerry. The result is a grand yet intimate work of history, unashamedly polemical and personal but unerringly factual.
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Today when you factor in the interest on the national debt from past wars and total defense expenditures the United States spends almost 40% of its federal budget on the military. It accounts for over 46% of total world arms spending. Before World War II it spent almost nothing on defense and hardly anyone paid any income taxes. You can't have big wars without big government. Such big expenditures are now threatening to harm the national economy.
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Surprisingly Good
- By ohmie on 04-22-14
By: Michael Swanson
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Road to Disaster
- A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam
- By: Brian VanDeMark
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 23 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite many words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent and previously successful men stumbled so badly. That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson.
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Vietnam Veteran
- By Jim Rollins on 04-02-19
By: Brian VanDeMark
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The Hawk and the Dove
- Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
- By: Nicholas Thompson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War; ironically, they were the chief advocates for the opposing strategies for winning---and surviving---that harrowing conflict. Both men came to power during World War II, reached their professional peaks during the Cold War's most frightening moments, and fought epic political battles that spanned decades.
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Two outstanding people in the US Government
- By Nina Donnard on 11-05-09
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Washington Rules
- America's Path to Permanent War
- By: Andrew Bacevich
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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For the last half century, as administrations have come and gone, the fundamental assumptions about America's military policy have remained unchanged: American security requires the United States (and us alone) to maintain a permanent armed presence around the globe, to prepare our forces for military operations in far-flung regions, and to be ready to intervene anywhere at any time. In the Obama era, just as in the Bush years, these beliefs remain unquestioned gospel.
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Permanent war and insolvency...thanks Washington
- By Jonnie on 10-13-10
By: Andrew Bacevich
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The Brothers
- John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
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A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
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The Cold War
- A New History
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jay Gregory, Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new and often startling information from newly opened Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives, this thrilling account explores the strategic dynamics that drove the Cold War, provides illuminating portraits of its major personalities, and offers much fresh insight into its most crucial events. Riveting, revelatory, and wise, it tells a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand as America once more faces an implacable ideological enemy.
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WOW
- By Cordell eddings on 10-13-07
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The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
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Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
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Confront and Conceal
- Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
- By: David E. Sanger
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Three and a half years ago, David Sanger’s book The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power described how a new American president came to office with the world on fire. Now, just as the 2012 presidential election battle begins, Sanger follows up with an eye-opening, news-packed account of how Obama has dealt with those challenges, relying on innovative weapons and reconfigured tools of American power to try to manage a series of new threats.
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Sobering reminder on what the presidency requires
- By Marilyn on 09-03-12
By: David E. Sanger
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Known and Unknown
- A Memoir
- By: Donald Rumsfeld
- Narrated by: Donald Rumsfeld
- Length: 30 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful memoir from the late former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history, Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.
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Inside view of five decades in politics
- By Brooks on 02-19-11
By: Donald Rumsfeld
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Churchill
- The Prophetic Statesman
- By: James C. Humes
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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James C. Humes reveals the astonishingly accurate predictions of Britain's most famous prime minister and how his critics' perceptions of them shaped his political career. Who could have foreseen the start of World War I twenty-five years before the assassination of a Serbian archduke plunged Europe into war? Who could have predicted the rise of al-Qaeda nearly eight decades before anyone had heard of Osama bin Laden? Winston Churchill did.
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The voice in the wilderness--Are we listening yet?
- By Jean on 12-16-12
By: James C. Humes
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America's War for the Greater Middle East
- A Military History
- By: Andrew J. Bacevich
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro, Andrew J. Bacevich
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise - now more than 30 years old and with no end in sight.
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A Key to Understanding the US Need for Perp. War
- By Darwin8u on 05-01-16
What listeners say about House of War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Lanlady
- 06-30-08
fascinating journey
Carroll's House of War is part personal memoir, part institutional history. It succeeds beautifully on both levels. It is never angry or indignant, but nevertheless leaves you with a disturbing sense in the pit of your stomach that an out-of-control Pentagon is undermining our country's democratic institutions and values. Carroll's writing is first-rate.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Timothy, Toronto, ON.
- 08-14-06
Powerful and Fascinating
James Carroll will make a lot of people uncomfortable with this book. His portrait of the Pentagon is not flattering. However, the scope of the story is wide, thorough and told from a unique perspective; that of a boy growing up in a military family that was intimately connected to America's military establishment. Carroll's portrait of Curtis Lemay is revealing and surprisingly sympathetic. To me, this is one of the strengths of the book; the Pentagon is shown as a collection of people, torn by myriad forces and loyalties. As a Canadian, I've always been curious about the enormous impact that mandatory military service has had on many generations of Americans. Despite my liberal leanings and a mistrust of things military, I've always been impressed by the fierce loyalty that our American friends display towards their troops. This book beautifully describes the military culture, warts and all. You could build an American history course around this book.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Hughes
- 06-14-08
Enthralling History
This book is history as lived in and lived through, told by the son of longest tenured director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. There is human drama, tragedy and paradox on every page. There are startling revelations of the falsity of fearmongering claims and there even more startling relevance to the fearmongering of today. And there are the levers of power, the industrial war machine. You might say, Carroll reveals "strange shapes of the primal world", as Melville might have said.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Terry
- 12-23-07
Well Written from the Heart
This is one of the best history/memoir books written in the last decade. An intimate knowledge of this book and its implications and insights should be required of all our so-called representatives in Congress, now and in the future.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Douglas
- 06-06-14
Brilliant, if Biased
This was a wonderfully written book. Carroll's meshing of the big story and his own personal story was fantastic. There are no boring or slow parts of this book. Robertson Dean is the absolute perfect choice of narrator for this one. The reason I give the book 4 instead of 5 stars is that Carroll is almost laughably one-sided in his take on the Pentagon and American foreign policy. He makes a number of great arguments that really are damning against the US and the war machine. But he makes an equal number of arguments that are just really difficult to buy. For starters, the idea that Japan had virtually surrendered when the bomb was dropped is ludicrous. But there are many other examples. So that's what kept me from going 5-star.
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- Albert J. Shorey
- 02-07-23
Enlightenment
Reinforces my thoughts about how powerless the citizenship is against the almighty “Military Industrial Complex,” which seems to govern all aspects of those of the human species that reside in the United States of America.
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Overall
- Eric
- 08-07-06
Must Read History
As a Marine Officer, Carroll has opened my mind to new ways of viewing Military History! In an effort to understand our current conflicts, I’ve listened to and or read at least 10 books on 911 and the “War on Terror” from many points of view. House of War is simply the BEST,…Period. It’s a documented history of the real defining issues of our times, the Pentagon’s Power, and the Military Industrial Complex’s justification for existence through an “enemy.” This is a must read for every American, but especially those of us born in the aftermath of the A/H bombs, who’ve sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.
Although not mentioned by Carroll, his book brings clarity to the similarities between Operation Northwood and 9/11. We must do something to stop this beast from Hell’s Bottom!
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Doug
- 03-23-09
American History X-pose
Do you want to take a peak behind the curtain of American power? Buy this book. It is not a rant or scandal-rag. This book reads like a handheld movie camera from 1945 on. I felt like I sat in the Pentagon hallways as American bureaucrats of every era stormed by me...tasked with saving the USA and possibly the world. This book is not set along party lines, but has the refreshing feel of an outsider, like us, on the inside, with them. It centers on two basic conflicts. 1) How do smart men REALLY tackle the modern puzzle of a managing a military which is obsolete in a war of nuclear weapons and, 2) that Presidents come and go, but the institution of Defense endures with its own bleak wisdom and breathtaking momentum.
This book will help you will come to respect our past presidents and administrations, even if you do not agree with them. Our age and our leaders have a challenge with ONLY imperfect answers and we are all under their umbrella. Scary. powerful. Great book.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Graham Topp
- 09-26-06
A Great Book
I enjoyed the House of War very much. It is certainly a long listen, but it managed to keep my interest throughout.
Of course, while the ideas contained within represent a leftist viewpoint (as the author readily admits), his insight into Truman's decision to bomb Japan and the concept of "dehousing" industrial workers is really worth a listen.
I think his view of the Cold War is a bit one sided. He seems to suggest that all Soviet behaviour was based reactions to American paranoia and ignorance.
Overall, this is a well researched, well presented book.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- GoTravel1385a
- 09-06-07
A Biased Account
It seemed to me that the author, an ex Vietnam war protester and failed priest, had long ago established his conclusions about the ‘disastrous rise’ of American power. He then looked for those facts that support these conclusions, ignoring all others. He portrays the Soviet Union as the good guy throughout the cold war and it was only the aggressive red-baiting American politicians and military leaders who were the real authors of this protracted struggle. If you’re looking for a balanced historical account of this topic, this is not the book for you.
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14 people found this helpful