The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism [Hardcover]

Frances Fox Piven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2004

The bestselling political thinker analyzes the impact of the Iraq War on domestic policy.

The overwhelming attention paid to America's imperial posture overseas has turned our eyes away from a crucial dimension of belligerent foreign policy: the domestic politics of war.

Frances Fox Piven, one of the country's most celebrated social scientists, raises questions others have not. She examines the ways the war on terror served to shore up the Bush administration's political base and analyzes the manner in which flag-waving politicians used the emotional fog of war to further their regressive social and economic agendas. In the past, governments tried to reward their citizens for their costly sacrifices —in blood and money. During World War II, tax rates on the wealthy rose to 90 percent; toward the end of the Vietnam War, eighteen-year-olds were given the right to vote. In this war, by contrast, democratic rights are being rolled back and taxes on the rich have been slashed. Even veterans' benefits have been sharply reduced.

The War at Home makes sense of these developments by putting the current domestic fallout of war in the context of history —and by turning an unsentimental eye on the domestic motivations of American militarism.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The emotional fervor generated by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has helped a domestic neoconservative agenda, as well as altered a historical pattern in which governments waging war wind up expanding civil rights and social programs, or so argues sociologist Piven (Why Americans Don’t Vote). The turn to preemptive war and the disregarding of international linkages, she claims, is part of a domestic strategy, just as the Cold War justified the domestic Red Scare. Piven doesn’t add original research; rather she synthesizes a wide range of reportage and commentators (Chalmers Johnson, Kevin Phillips, Naomi Klein, Garry Wills, Jonathan Schell, etc.) in sometimes bloglike fashion. She finds Bush backers in Congress invoked the need to avoid partisan bickering in wartime—thus hastening passage of corporate-friendly tax-cut legislation and deregulation. Meanwhile, cuts in federal spending increased pressure on the states to cut back their own social spending. Piven doesn’t pause much to analyze why the opposition Democrats and others let this happen, but she does argue that the fallout from the wars make the administration vulnerable in the upcoming election. "War itself cannot be an effective cover for this ruse for long," she concludes, predicting (while at the same time working to foster) an atmosphere conducive to regime change.
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Review

A brilliant and provocative theory of what's driving the new imperialism—and no, it's not the oil, stupid! -- Barbara Ehrenreich

After all that has been written on the Iraq war, Frances Fox Piven supplies the missing piece of the puzzle. -- Fred Block, author of The Vampire State

Frances Fox Piven has hit the nail on the head as usual. -- Theodore J. Lowi, author of The End of Liberalism

Good fuel for arguments with the Republican next door. -- Kirkus Reviews

Superb and provocative. -- The Capital Times

Synthesizes a wide range of reportage and commentators. -- Publishers Weekly

The most thoroughgoing, detailed indictment of George W. Bush and his cronies that has appeared between two covers. -- Peter Edelman, author of Searching for America's Heart --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 165 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (October 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565849353
• ISBN-13: 978-1565849358
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,534,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Frances Fox Piven is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology
at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and the author of the bestselling Poor People's Movements, Regulating the Poor, and Why Americans Don't Vote (with the late
Richard A. Cloward), as well as The War At Home, Keeping Down the Black Vote, and many other books. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sharp indictment of the neoconservative agenda, September 29, 2005

By 

Malvin (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism (Hardcover)

"The War at Home" by Frances Fox Piven is a sharp indictment of the Bush administration's neoconservative agenda. Cloaked in the righteousness of war, Ms. Piven argues that extremist elements within the Republican Party skilfully exploited the public's fears in order to further a radical domestic agenda. By demonstrating that this behavior flies in the face of history -- where war has often been a catalyst for increasing democratic rights at home -- Ms. Pivens believes the political Right has opened an opportunity for the Left to successfully challenge the status quo.

The heart of Ms. Pivens' thesis is that the apparent irrationality of the Bush administration's foreign policy and the Iraq War in particular can be partly explained by the political advantage it has gained for Republicans at home. From exorbitant no-bid contracts for reconstruction in Iraq to huge outlays for defense and homeland security to a panoply of corporate tax cuts and deregulation, the war has proven to be a boon for corporate America. On the other hand, Ms. Pivens details how a host of social programs such welfare, meal assitance, unemployment insurance, health insurance and after school programs have been quietly cut or underfunded, thereby making the lives of many ordinary Americans more difficult than before.

Interestingly, Ms. Pivens discusses differences within the Republican Party constituency to highlight some of the contradictions created by the Bush administration's policies. For example, deregulation is a key issue for the tobacco and gun industries, but increased spending on homeland security has significantly increased the regulatory function of government. Similarly, the mostly wealthy anti-tax crowd cannot help but be alarmed by the explosive growth of the federal deficit and the threat this may pose to the long-term health of the economy. The author suggests that the rallying effect created by the September 11 attacks cannot persist in holding these factions together and that fissures within the Republican base will soon become exposed.

Of course, at the time of her writing in mid-2004 Ms. Pivens was hopeful that the people might reject Bush's bid for reelection. However, she anticipated the possibility that the Republican political machine might unabashedly exploit the public's fear of terrorism and propagandize a handful of deeply-flawed social initiatives in order to win, a prediction that sadly proved to be true. Yet, in my sole criticism of this book, she does not articulate a Leftist or Democratic agenda that might counterpose the far-Right Republican agenda. In my opinion, the Democrats must bear responsibility for its failure to oppose the war and to articulate a credible vision for America which has created a void that the Republicans have been only too happy to fill.

Still, I think this book does a superb job of illuminating the highly destructive course that the Bush administration and its neoconservative policies have charted for our country. I highly recommend this enlightening and empowering book to everyone.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent explanation of pure nonsense., March 2, 2009

By 

J. Guild (Toronto,Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism (Paperback)

This book is nothing more than a re-hash of all the Leftist Socialist thinking that has been expounded since the early 1900's .The reason the book deserves 5*'s is not because I agree with what is presented;but because it covers all the worn out theories in such a concise manner.
All one has to do ,is to look at what the results of having America and what she has accomplished in every way,from manyfacturing,maintaining world peace,advances in science,medicine,freedoms,agriculture and spreading prosperity around the world (particularly to those countries who are willing to accept these things) ;that by any measure that can imaginally applied,then it is readily seen tha America and her accomplishments have outstripped all others.
The thinking that is expounded in this book, that America is evil and the solution is Socialism, has proved to be a catastrophic failure in most places where it got entrenched ,and continues to be put forth by the Left. Why this is the case can only be assumed to be that the left believe ,that the success of free enterprise,championed by America ,must be eliminated for Socialism to succeed.That thinking would mean that for failure to succeed,first success must be eliminated.
All one has to do is look at the results of Sovialism,where it has been tried,and all that results ,is failure at its worst,or mediocracy at its best.In other words ,no "shining city on a hill" but instead a "gloomy valley of delusion".
God Bless America and her concepts of Life,Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness ;all which are just the opposite of Left Wing Socialism.