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The decorated U.S. general who exposed war profiteering and called modern warfare a business scheme.
One of the most explosive antiwar documents ever written, War Is a Racket is the 1935 speech and pamphlet in which Major General Smedley Butler—one of the most decorated Marines in U.S. history—publicly declared that modern warfare serves corporate profit more than national defense. Drawing on decades of military service in Central America, the Caribbean, and China, Butler delivers a blunt insider’s account of how financial interests shape military intervention.
This edition restores Butler’s original text and places it in historical context with an introduction addressing his break from the military establishment and his role in exposing a proposed fascist coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The volume also includes rare photographs from the 1932 antiwar book The Horror of It by Frederick A. Barber and two lesser-known anti-interventionist essays by Butler that extend his critique of war profiteering and imperial policy.
Short, direct, and historically significant, War Is a Racket has remained in continuous demand among readers of military history, political history, antiwar literature, and investigative nonfiction. Frequently cited across the political spectrum, Butler’s argument continues to resonate with readers examining the relationship between war, industry, and power in the modern era.
An essential primary document for anyone interested in U.S. military history, war profiteering, civil-military relations, and twentieth-century political dissent.
“Butler is scathing in his description of how the U.S. government wasted the lives of those soldiers who died but also of those who survived… A stunning condemnation of U.S. militarism and it ends with a demand that rings true down to today – ‘To hell with war.’” — Ashley Smith, Socialist Worker
“America had seen its own attempt at a Fascist coup. Why, then, is this incident in U.S. history not better known? Why don’t children learn in school about the plot to seize the United States government?… The time has obviously come for Smedley Butler to have his moment in the sun. Butler’s attack on the military-industrial complex does more than expose war for the racket it is: It also gives the antiwar movement unmatched credibility.”— Ken Mondschein, corporatemofo.com