PRIZES to win! PROMOTIONS

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

The Trillion Dollar War Machine

How Runaway Military Spending Drives America Into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home

William D Hartung Ben Freeman

$64.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Bold Type Books
11 November 2025
A hard-hitting investigation into how the Pentagon's runaway spending embroils America in foreign wars, squanders its wealth, and enriches a privileged elite ""A damning indictment of the conflicts of interest running rampant in the defense establishment.""―Publishers Weekly

America spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military. This extraordinary spending not only detracts from our ability to address pressing social problems but compels us into foreign wars to justify our vast arsenal. Sold to us in the name of ""security,"" our military industrial complex actually makes us far less safe.

Top policy experts William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman follow the profits of militarism from traditional Pentagon contractors, which receive more than half of the Pentagon's budget, to the upstart high-tech firms that shamelessly promote unproven and destabilizing technologies. They unmask the enablers of the war machine--politicians, lobbyists, the media, Hollywood, think tanks, and so many more--whose work enriches a wealthy elite at the expense of everybody else, spreading conflict around the world and embroiling America in endless wars.

A damning tour de force, The Trillion Dollar War Machine shows who is pulling the strings and pushing for war, and offers a blueprint for how we can shut down the war machine and restore American security and prosperity.
By:   ,
Imprint:   Bold Type Books
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 239mm,  Width: 160mm,  Spine: 30mm
Weight:   499g
ISBN:   9781645030638
ISBN 10:   1645030636
Pages:   336
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

William D. Hartung is a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, focusing on the arms industry and military spending. He is the author of Prophets of War and resides in New York City. Ben Freeman, director of democratizing foreign policy at the Quincy Institute, holds a PhD from Texas A&M. He focuses on investigating money in politics, military spending, and foreign influence. He lives in central Florida.

Reviews for The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America Into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home

​""A resounding denunciation of a military-industrial complex gone metastatic.""--Kirkus ""A corrupt military-industrial complex peddles shoddy weapons that can't win wars but still wreak havoc around the world, according to this coruscating exposé... It's a damning indictment of the conflicts of interest running rampant in the defense establishment.""--Publishers Weekly ""Hartung and Freeman show that the ecosystem of state-privileged, corporate militarists has become a beast. The result is a war machine that can't protect us, a foreign policy that flirts with Armageddon, a broken domestic society, and a people who cannot see that the very fabric of our reality is a militarist matrix crafted by lies and sustained by our blood and our souls.""--Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute ""Hartung and Freeman tell a tragic story of how the military industrial complex successfully survived President Eisenhower's dark warning and now shapes the military budget and our escalating rivalry with China. But even more ominous, Silicon Valley has joined the game with promises of AI miracles and lethal systems and gadgets galore. Sobering--and well worth reading.""--Jerry Brown, former governor of California ""This is it: the definitive account of America's wasteful, corrupt, and astonishingly ineffective military industrial complex. William Hartung and Ben Freeman have done their fellow citizens a great service. Taking their message to heart is a job for the rest of us.""--Andrew Bacevich, cofounder of the Quincy Institute and coeditor of Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars


See Also