For the Common Defense

Allan R. Millett · Peter Maslowski

Sep 2012 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Now fully updated and totally revised, this highly regarded classic remains the most comprehensive study available of America’s military history.

Called “the preeminent survey of American military history” by Russell F. Weigley, America’s foremost military historian, For the Common Defense is an essential contribution to the field of military history. This carefully researched third edition provides the most complete and current history of United States defense policy and military institutions and the conduct of America’s wars. Without diminishing the value of its earlier editions, authors Allan R. Millett, Peter Maslowski, and William B. Feis provide a fresh perspective on the continuing issues that characterize national security policy. They have updated the work with new material covering nearly twenty years of scholarship, including the history of the American military experience in the Balkans and Somalia, analyzing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2012, and providing two new chapters on the Vietnam War.

For the Common Defense examines the nation’s pluralistic military institutions in both peace and war, the tangled civil-military relations that created the country’s commitment to civilian control of the military, the armed forces’ increasing nationalization and professionalization, and America’s growing reliance on sophisticated technologies spawned by the Industrial Revolution and the Computer and Information Ages. This edition is also a timely reminder that vigilance is indeed the price of liberty but that vigilance has always been—and continues to be—a costly, complex, and contentious undertaking in a world that continually tests America’s willingness and ability to provide for the common defense.

Ratings and reviews

Well done, and so much campaign detail, along with some reach into the minds behind the war. I just wish it covered more; battles and units.

Can i eat this book?

About the author

Allan R. Millett is Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Peter Maslowski is professor of history at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.