Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Is It Too Late to Descope This? -- G.I. Joe, Ho Chi Minh, and the American Art of Fighting About Fighting -- A Nation at Peace Everywhere in the World -- Let 'Er Fly -- Isle of Spice -- Stupid Regulations -- Mylanta, 'Tis of Thee -- Doing More with Less (Hassle) -- "One Hell of a Killing Machine" -- An $8 Trillion Fungus Among Us -- Epilogue: You Build It, You Own It.

Maddow shows how deeply militarized our culture has become--how the role of the national security sector has shape-shifted and grown over the past century to the point of being financially unsustainable and confused in mission.