Pawns; the plight of the citizen-soldier [Hardcover]

Peter Barnes (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394436164
• ISBN-13: 978-0394436166
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,367,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in NYC and spent first 26 years on east coast. Newsweek sent me to San Francisco in 1968. Soon left Newsweek but never the Bay Area. West Coast correspondent for The New Republic, 1970-1976. Worked in Eugene McCarthy and Fred Harris presidential campaigns. Started worker-owned solar energy business in 1976, served on board of National Cooperative Bank, promoted worker ownership. Co-founded Working Assets in 1982, retired in 1995. Founded Mesa Refuge, a writer's retreat in Point Reyes Station. Co-founded Tomales Bay Institute, which reinvents the commons. Two sons, Zack and Eli.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on the military ever written. Our tax dollars paid for it, but it was scrapped, December 17, 2008

By 

Marion Delgado (Eugene OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pawns; the plight of the citizen-soldier (Hardcover)

Nixon commissioned Barnes to be part of the process of a total overhall of the military. But what he came back with didn't please the people such as Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney who were already infesting the US military establishment: Barnes recommended moving the US military towards the original citizen soldier model and the conception of it, in imitation of the Swiss militia, that the Founders had, but modernized and higher tech.

It's a moving and irresistable book, I wish I'd kept my paperback copy since it's so rare now. I don't think any of Barnes' later books were more important or better at all.