War Is a Racket

By: General Smedley D Butler

Narrated by: D S Harvey

Length: 49 mins

Publisher's summary

After his retirement from the Marine Corps in the early 1930s, General Smedley D. Butler embarked on a national lecture tour, where he gave his speech about how commercial interests benefit from war. The speech was well received and he wrote an expanded version of it, which was published as War Is A Racket. The work was published by Reader's Digest as a condensed book supplement, which added to its popularity.

The book consists of five chapters. The first chapter cites telling statistics: 21,000 people became millionaires and billionaires during the war; four million men served; the growth of national debt by a factor of 25 from 1898 to 1918. The second chapter details the level of profits made by many major US corporations made in the years preceding World War I and compares them to the significantly greater profits made from and during the war. The third chapter lays bare the ways in which the costs are borne by the public, with particular focus on humiliating deductions from the pay of soldiers.

Chapter four sets forth three simple methods to limit wars: insist that everyone in the war economy earn the same income as that of the soldiers; conduct a vote to decide whether or not to go to war and limit the voters to those who would serve; limit appropriations and activities to strictly defensive measures. The final chapter shows the futility of arms limitations negotiations and makes it plain that only total disarmament will break the back of the beast.

Public Domain (P)2019 MP3 Audiobook Classics

Facts and perspective that every teenager should know

The education systems in the US are designed to produce, in the words of George Carlin, “obedient workers”, i would add “compliant citizens” to that.

great story by a great man.

performance low marks because I had to hear the title of the book every 5 minutes of a 49minute read. . . 🤬 it was driving me nuts!

Great short story

Good lesson for all warriors and citizens. Clear, understandable narration. Recommend this be mandatory reading in American public schools.

Should be required for any high school student

A must have for any Marine or person that is going to join the military. This should be mandatory in high-school history classes.

Outstanding

In bootcamp we learned that Smedley Butler was one of two Marines to win two Medals of Honor. What they did not teach us was General Butler’s conclusion: war is a racket! A must read for any Marine.

History Repeats

We should have heeded general Butler‘s warnings back in the 1930s. It is easy for us to look back now and see that the indictment he sets forth in this book is all too accurate. As we are now threatened by the end of our existence, leveraging the sage counsel of great men like Smedley Butler and George Patton will pay dividends to how we save this republic.
Tactical Civics™

Butler: A Man Ahead of His Time

Short, simple and to the point, General Butler pulls no punches and what he said about 100 years ago still stands today. There certainly is a lot of profit with war, the problem is the politicians and big business keep all of the profits for themselves, while the back break costs are shifted to the soldiers, their families and the rest of the citizenry.

A Must for Objectivity

A classic read for those who are seeking contextual insight of the early 20th century.

Straight to the point

I chose D S Harvey's reading because it was well done and fit best (in my imagination) the voice of the author.

This book is short but definitely not sweet. General Butler wastes no time getting to punch line. War is a racket, here's why and here's how to stop it. Unfortunately, those who would, presumably, hold the means to implement the steps to stop the racket are unlikely to want to stop it. So it's left up to the pawns to refuse any further participation. Also unlikely unless they could all read this book and take it to heart.

War is a racket but not that simple to understand

The numbers used by Smedley Butler, like $52 billion of defense spending, did not sound right. I checked and found the following total federal government receipts and expenditures (in millions) were nowhere near this. The first column below is receipts, the second expenditures. America entered the war in 1917. There was a depression in 1920 that lasted 18 months and under the leadership of President Harding, government expenditures were reduced. The only way war was a racket for the United States was if it caused the war for profit. For most of the war, the United States was on the sidelines and did profit at the expense of Europe and Asia, where they had to import food, clothing, and material from the United States due to local conditions. Both American businesses and the masses profited but ran into a depression in 1920 when the malinvestments came home to roost.
1914 725 726
1915 683 746
1916 761 713
1917 1,101 1,954
1918 3,645 12,677
1919 5,130 18,493
1920 6,649 6,358