Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security

American military interventionism has its roots in the New Deal, according to this insightful study. Historian Preston (Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith) follows a shift in U.S. strategic thinking from the 19th century, when Americans believed themselves protected by the oceans from overseas enemies, to WWII and the postwar era, when the U.S. government felt that foreign countries posed existential threats to America that justified far-reaching armed interventions. He spotlights President Franklin Roosevelt as the key figure in this shift. Just as Roosevelt’s domestic agenda insured citizens against the fearful uncertainties of old age, illness, and unemployment, Preston contends, his administration promulgated an expansive, fear-based concept of national security, which held that America’s safety could only be ensured by a powerful military that fought enemies abroad before they could attack the homeland. The result was a state of permanent peacetime military mobilization and unlimited geostrategic commitments that led to wars from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq. Preston traces these ideological developments through many eclectic sources, from the writings of international relations scholars to the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. (The film presents George Bailey’s wartime civil defense activities as comically pointless, he notes, indicating that fears of invasion were perceived by some as farcical.) It’s an incisive reconsideration of a landmark legislative program. (May)