The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic

This book will offend the Dick Cheney school of foreign affairs, where the privilege of elitism evades the blatant hypocrisy of NEVER COMBATANTS sending 19 year olds into slaughter. Because obviously we lost something of the 1940s moral imperatives when war was entirely over oil. OTOH it strikes me as too easy to over criticize the US from the advantages of hindsight and never addressing the realist concerns of living in a... Read Full Review

In The Sorrows of Empire Chalmers Johnson has compiled and constructed a brilliant analysis of United States military policy and its history, as well as evolution, of imperialistic tendencies. The book presents an overwhelming amount of superbly done research as well as an incredible array of statistical information to buttress the arguments that Johnson wishes to promulgate. Most importantly, Johnson is providing an increasingly... Read Full Review

It's obvious that Gabriel Jones, whose "review" is below, has not read the book. The book has nothing to do with embracing socialism or leftist thought. Johnson criticizes Democratic and Republican administrations and attributes the fall of the USSR to the inherent weaknesses of its socialist system. This is a valuable book about reality and its consequences. It is about how a corrupt and rigged political system has abandoned... Read Full Review

C. Johnson wrote a dark and very revealing book. He shows forcefully that the US became a militarist empire, which eroded the democratic underpinnings of the constitutional empire and transfered power tot the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies. His thesis is profusely illustrated: US military and intelligence interventions worldwide, the enormous defense budget and hundreds of US bases all over the planet. This imperialistic... Read Full Review

Am I the only one who thinks the the rest of his countryman are nuts? For the past 60 years and three generations, Americans have been led to believe that that spending billions for the Defense of the country is not only necessary but patriotic. Forget conspiracy theories and ideological agendas, just contemplate one fact: The USA spends more on military and intelligence funding in 2004 than it has spent at any one time... Read Full Review