
Drift
The Unmooring of American Military Power
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Narrated by:
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Rachel Maddow
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By:
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Rachel Maddow
About this listen
The #1 New York Times bestseller that charts America’s dangerous drift into a state of perpetual war. "One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Founders could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with its tens of thousands of "privateers"; its bloated Department of Homeland Security; its rusting nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle; and its strange fascination with an unproven counterinsurgency doctrine.
Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse.
Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seriously funny, Drift will reinvigorate a "loud and jangly" political debate about how, when, and where to apply America's strength and power--and who gets to make those decisions.
©2012 Rachel Maddow (P)2012 Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Thank Ms. Maddow for picking this and every other fight that Drift provokes. It will be a smarter public debate than the kinds we're used to." (Janet Maslin, New York Times)
"Maddow’s distinctive voice in Drift is highly intelligent, often incredulous and intermittently and humorously profane...Her thesis, which is passionately and effectively articulated, remind[s] us of how far we have drifted from linking the sacrifices of our armed forces around the world to the citizens at home they so selflessly serve… Maddow…[has] provided readers with a timely and perhaps necessary provocation to examine the far-reaching consequences of the American way of war." (Gordon M. Goldstein, Washington Post)
"Crosses partisan lines and deals with issues that deserve a healthy debate...A compelling, intelligent read filled with Maddow's trademark wit." (Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times)
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In the years leading up to the election of Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Schiff had already been sounding the alarm over the resurgence of autocracy around the world, and the threat this posed to the United States. But as he led the probe into Donald Trump’s abuses of presidential power, Schiff came to the terrible conclusion that the principal threat to American democracy now came from within. In Midnight in Washington, Schiff argues that the Trump presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the peril will last for years.
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Not what I expected
- By Lynn on 10-18-21
By: Adam Schiff
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Oath and Honor
- A Memoir and a Warning
- By: Liz Cheney
- Narrated by: Liz Cheney
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.
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Most important book I've ever read.
- By James m Finamore jr on 12-07-23
By: Liz Cheney
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The Longest Con
- How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism
- By: Joe Conason
- Narrated by: Steve Marvel
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The Longest Con tells the fascinating story of the partisan con artists who have corrupted conservative politics in our time, creating a toxic phenomenon that culminated in the election of Donald Trump, a bumptious fraud whose checkered career and tawdry retinue, including his presidential cabinet, have featured almost every variety of scam. But long before he appeared, Trump's path to power was blazed by the motley horde of swindlers and quacks who preceded him.
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America Needs to Know the Truth and Dangers of Trump
- By Tiberius on 12-01-24
By: Joe Conason
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Dear Rachel Maddow
- A Novel
- By: Adrienne Kisner
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Brynn Haper's life has one steadying force - Rachel Maddow. She watches her daily, and after writing to Rachel for a school project - and actually getting a response - Brynn starts drafting emails to Rachel but never sending them. Brynn tells Rachel about breaking up with her first serious girlfriend, about her brother Nick's death, about her passive mother and even worse stepfather, about how she's stuck in remedial courses at school and is considering dropping out. Then Brynn is confronted with a moral dilemma.
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Very well written & funny
- By Jennifer on 03-03-19
By: Adrienne Kisner
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Attack from Within
- How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America
- By: Barbara McQuade
- Narrated by: Barbara McQuade
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Disinformation is designed to evoke a strong emotional response to push us toward more extreme views, unable to find common ground with others. The false claims that led to the breathtaking attack on our Capitol in 2020 may have been only a dress rehearsal. Attack from Within shows us how to prevent it from happening again, thus preserving our country's hard-won democracy.
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Trump bashing
- By joseph clayson on 03-09-24
By: Barbara McQuade
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Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
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Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
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The Conspiracy to End America
- Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Today’s Republican party is not a “normal” political party in the American tradition. It has become an autocratic movement masquerading as a political party. As Stuart Stevens argues in The Conspiracy to End America, if we look away from that truth, we greatly increase the likelihood that the America we love will slip away, never to return.
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Required Reading
- By Arturo Zendejas on 10-27-23
By: Stuart Stevens
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Fear
- Trump in the White House
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files, and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One, and the White House residence.
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Extremely Depressing...
- By Pattisguilfordgardenct on 09-11-18
By: Bob Woodward
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War
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars—Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American Presidency. War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.
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Draws Connections
- By Kyle on 10-18-24
By: Bob Woodward
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The Sirens' Call
- How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
- By: Chris Hayes
- Narrated by: Chris Hayes
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.”
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Thoughtful and captivating
- By Nancy on 02-02-25
By: Chris Hayes
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It Was All a Lie
- How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else.
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A party gone astray
- By Devin on 08-07-20
By: Stuart Stevens
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Shameless
- Republicans’ Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy
- By: Brian Tyler Cohen
- Narrated by: Brian Tyler Cohen
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In Shameless, Brian Tyler Cohen lays bare the long con of the modern Republican Party. While the radical right continues hiding behind gaslighting maneuvers, artificial slogans, and hollow catchphrases, Cohen’s unflinching narrative illuminates the realities and dangers of the ever-widening gulf between the vaunted Republican brand and their actual behavior.
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Great read and informative!
- By LizzyD629 on 08-29-24
What listeners say about Drift
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- darswords
- 03-30-12
Thank you, Rachel Maddow!
Factual and SCARY! I listened to Rachel read the book on Audible while following along on my Kindle. As has been stated in other reviews, this book is written in conversational style. If you watch her show you know how personable Ms. Maddow is. She includes puns and her opinion, supported by evidence of long hours of research.
Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I like to leave reality and hang out in fantasy-land. Maybe it is because of being surrounded by Real Life that is quite stressful and frightening. Don't expect to come away from this book mollified. No soothing story, this.
But Rachel doesn't leave you with a sense of helplessness. This book was written to raise our awareness of what has been happening right under our noses. But once we are aware, there are things we can do to make sure we get back to our constitutional foundations. This points fingers at a lot of wrongs but neither party is innocent.
I can't believe I read anything about American Military Power. But I feel this book has enlightened me. If it hadn't been written and narrated by Rachel Maddow, I don't think I would have read it.
Thank you, Rach, for keeping us informed.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Pat Blackis
- 04-23-12
Everyone needs to read this book!
The audio edition of Drift must certainly be better than the print version. Rachel Maddow is a superb narrator. The sparkle and wit in her voice held my intense interest during this recital that is both grim and hugely important.
I am not old enough to remember Thomas Jefferson, but I am old enough to remember vividly the Viet Nam Conflict and succeeding events, both military and political. Whereas our founding fathers feared the idea of an imperial presidency, and tried to preclude it happening, that is exactly what has developed within my lifetime, a trend which Rachael brings into sharp focus. Dr. Maddow examines America's changing attitude about war and the shift in the power of the executive branch of government to take us to war which such clarity and insight as to be breathtaking. Although this is a scholarly work, it is easy to read and comprehend. I urge everyone read this book and give it serious thought. Perhaps then we could bend the tide -- or at least have an intelligent national conversation about tide bending.
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7 people found this helpful
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- J. Bradburn
- 05-14-12
Great Book for the left or right
What made the experience of listening to Drift the most enjoyable?
Rachel did not stray away from the Dems for not doing the right things. She points out the power grab of both parties and allows you to understand how this has happened and why (as to what was going on during that period). She also shows the dangers of what is going on and the scale to which it is going on. I do not believe Americans know to what level the power grab is going on.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Kitty
- 04-30-12
Uncomfortable Tuths, Well Presented
Carefully providing the historical underpinnings of both the intentions of the Founding Fathers and the "good" reasons for which "bad" laws have been put into place, Maddow lines out how we have handed off most of our freedoms for the illusion of security. Whether her liberal slant resonates with you or not, there's much here that should get your hackles up. I'm a Libertarian/Republican and I found much of interest here.
Maddow is an exceptionally intelligent, articulate, and charismatic woman who also has a strong academic bent. My only complaint about this book was that in her narration I found a bit more of her liberal smug sarcastic delivery, the thing that keeps me from watching her news program, than I was entirely comfortable with.
In the end, smugness aside, this is a book that everyone who really wants to believe that this is a free country needs to read and understand.
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4 people found this helpful
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- cj
- 04-06-12
Rachel's Voice made all the difference~!~
Would you listen to Drift again? Why?
Rachel's soothing, familiar voice and warm bedside manner made it possible for me to stay with a very interesting subject, and actually learn something. I appreciated the history lessons and insight into the thought process of Presidents of the past. Great Listen...
Once was enough...Rachel makes it easy listening.....You'll get it...If I listen again it will be strictly for entertainment. I loved hearing her speak of Reagan....laughed lots...Johnson too~~
Who was your favorite character and why?
President Johnson had an ego out of this World....Reagan talked tough and worked the crowd....enjoyed learning more about both.
What does Rachel Maddow bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Rachel have a gift of making a boring subject palatable.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Lets just say it held my attention and I listened for the entire 7 hours...until it ended.
The emotion would be happy...lots of humor mixed in...
Any additional comments?
Thanks Rachel for writing this book. I did not completely comprehend the whys of Vietnam..I feel enlightened.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Pam Warren
- 05-28-12
Revealing
If you could sum up Drift in three words, what would they be?
I will listen again which I rarely do. Rachel Maddow is bright, articulate and thorough with her research team before she puts anything in writing. I have lived through most of the moments of which she addresses. My opinions during those moments were often strongly felt, as well as the belief in the thought that they were based on accurate facts. She documents her facts and reveals a different truth. While acknowledging that perspectives on specifics may be different, US military operations from the top authority has drifted away from the Constitution's original plan and the people living in the US have drifted or been insulated from the realities of the war/wars their dollars support.
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3 people found this helpful
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- mike v
- 11-11-12
Ron Paul would agree
What made the experience of listening to Drift the most enjoyable?
I am a conservative libertarian and always enjoy it when people of the other persuasion say something that resonates. All conservatives are not pro-war defenders of the military industrial complex. There are many non-interventionists, myself included.
Who was your favorite character and why?
N/A
What does Rachel Maddow bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
By reading the book herself, she gets to emphasize those points she thinks most salient.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Steven M. Schrader
- 04-23-12
Had hard time turning it off, wanted to hear more
Where does Drift rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?
One of the best.factual not a story
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes.
Any additional comments?
Well research, factual and a bit scarey
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1 person found this helpful
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- Richard Boyle
- 04-30-12
Drift is informative book on why we go to War
If you could sum up Drift in three words, what would they be?
Informative, inspiring, maddening
Who was your favorite character and why?
My favorite characters are the people that fight for peace, trying to change the culture of our Nation
Have you listened to any of Rachel Maddow’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
only on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Drift confirmed some of what I had thought before about the military and our “leaders” both Republicans and Democrats, but I didn’t realize just how bad our government has become.
Any additional comments?
We have to change the culture of the American people who make hero of warriors who take lives and the peacemakers who save lives (peacemakers= Police, Firefighters, Doctors, and the Coastguard)
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- R. P. Glass
- 04-23-12
Rachel Rocks Informatively
Would you consider the audio edition of Drift to be better than the print version?
I didn't read the print version.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
Just how scary the American public's disconnect from the horrors and sacrifice in war has become.
Which character – as performed by Rachel Maddow – was your favorite?
Rachel Maddow
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Having lived through "Duck and Cover", America's lax attitude about aging nuclear weapons
Any additional comments?
Hearing Rachel adds just the right tone of humor and incredulity about America's serious slippery slope to separating the vast majority of the public from war policy and awareness.
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1 person found this helpful