Pentagon Capitalism

Highlight[s] new and different facets of the public-private partnership that fuels America’s addiction to war: The national security state modeled itself on private enterprise, ultimately outsourcing war. – Andrew Lanham * New Republic *
Tracks the remarkable structural transformations of the American military after World War II, as its booming dimensions accelerated the adoption of administrative controls and managerial practices used in the private sector…An astute, absorbing analysis of a transformative era of military history. * Kirkus Reviews *
A. J. Murphy brings a whole new meaning to ‘the military-industrial complex.’ In this eye-opening investigation into how models and strategies from the for-profit world reshaped the American military during the Cold War, we see in shocking detail how practices such as business management training, labor control, and the obsession with efficiency and systems analysis began to proliferate in the armed forces—perhaps the most public of government services. Pentagon Capitalism not only provides much-needed scrutiny of the evolution of the US military after World War II, but also sheds important light on how government more broadly has been changing since the New Deal. – Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
This essential book lays out the history of doomed efforts to manage the Department of Defense like a private business—doomed from the start because, as Pentagon Capitalism points out, ‘the military was not a business and could never succeed at being one.’ A. J. Murphy also makes clear that far from being an optional feature of modern capitalism, the military-industrial complex is deeply embedded in the worldviews of America’s economic and political elites, blocking reform not only at the Pentagon but in American society writ large. – William D. Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex
There is no better way to understand the modern American economy than by coming to terms with its most powerful actor: the US Department of Defense. The sprawling Cold War military enterprise adopted corporate models out of both necessity and admiration, but as A. J. Murphy shows, that choice had lasting consequences both on and off base. Pentagon Capitalism doesn’t just shed light on the Pentagon: it’s a fresh new take on the history of American capitalism. – Christopher Capozzola, author of Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century
In this outstanding book, A. J. Murphy provides a strikingly original account of business and economic management inside one of the largest organizations in history: the US military during the Cold War. Pentagon Capitalism deserves attention not just from students of twentieth-century history, but also from anyone interested in the never-ending struggle to reconcile the goals of cost efficiency and military effectiveness. – Mark R. Wilson, author of Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II

A. J. Murphy is Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University.

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