Bomb Power

Description

A groundbreaking examination of how the atomic bomb profoundly altered the nature of American democracy.

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What the Qur’an Meant, coming fall 2017.

In Bomb Power, bestselling author Garry Wills presents a blistering critique of excessive executive power and official secrecy, drawing a direct line from the Manhattan Project to the usurpations of George W. Bush. He reveals how the atomic bomb transformed our nation down to its deepest constitutional roots-by dramatically increasing the power of the modern presidency and redefining the government as a national security state-leaving us in a state of continuous war alert for nearly seven decades. Bold and incisive, Bomb Power casts the history of the postwar period in a new light and sounds an alarm about the continued threat to our Constitution.”Persuasive…elegantly argued.”
-Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review

“A powerful-and sobering-account of the step-by-step creation of government structures, unaccountable to Congress or the people, to conduct ‘permanent war in peace.””
–The Boston Globe

“Bomb Power is pungent, confident, fluid, steeped in learning.”
–Vanity Fair

“Written in Wills’ characteristically accessible style, Bomb Power is a well-argued denunciation of our constitutional gatekeepers that is as sad and fascinating as an account of the decline of the Roman republic. … [Wills’s] credentials as a historian are impeccable. His breadth of knowledge is awe inspiring, but he never goes over the reader’s head: He is a scholar with the heart of a journalist.”
–The Miami Herald

“Deeply thought-provoking… A prolific author of astonishing range, Wills…offers a forceful indictment of the 43rd president, and even more of his vice president, Dick Cheney.”
–The San Francisco Chronicle

“Thought-provoking…compelling.”
–The Los Angeles Times

“As usual with Wills, provocatively argued and elegantly written.”
–KirkusGarry Wills is a historian and the author of the New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant, Papal Sin, Why I Am a Catholic, and Why Priests?, among others. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and other publications, Wills is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor emeritus at Northwestern University. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.US

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