How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything

Tales from the Pentagon

By: Rosa Brooks, Rosa Brooks - introduction

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

“A dynamic work of reportage” (The New York Times) written “with clarity and...wit” (The New York Times Book Review) about what happens when the ancient boundary between war and peace is erased.

Once, war was a temporary state of affairs. Today, America’s wars are everywhere and forever: our enemies change constantly and rarely wear uniforms, and virtually anything can become a weapon. As war expands, so does the role of the US military. Military personnel now analyze computer code, train Afghan judges, build Ebola isolation wards, eavesdrop on electronic communications, develop soap operas, and patrol for pirates. You name it, the military does it.

In this “ambitious and astute” (The Washington Post) work, Rosa Brooks “provides a masterful analysis” (San Francisco Chronicle) of this seismic shift in how America wages war from an unconventional perspective—that of a former top Pentagon official who is the daughter of two anti-war protesters and married to an Army Green Beret. By turns a memoir, a work of journalism, a scholarly exploration of history, anthropology, and law, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything is an “illuminating” (The New York Times), “eloquent” (The Boston Globe), “courageous” (US News & World Report), and “essential” (The Dallas Morning News) examination of the role of the military today. Above all, it is a rallying cry, for Brooks issues an urgent warning: When the boundaries around war disappear, we undermine both America’s founding values and the international rules and organizations that keep our world from sliding towards chaos.

Critic reviews

“A dynamic work of reportage, punctuated by savory details… It delights. The author is a chipper field guild and canny ethnographer, writing with refreshing honesty about the folk ways of the Department of Defense, which often confound outsiders… Illuminating.” (Jennifer Senior)

“Brooks writes with clarity and epigrammatic wit.... In impressive and often fascinating detail, she documents that the boundaries between war and peace have grown so hazy as to undermine hard-won global gains in human rights and the rule of law.” (Harry Evans)

“One of the most thought-provoking books I’ve ever read. It’s as if we have been sleep walking into this new world and Rosa has turned on a flashlight to show what we are doing and where we are going.” (General James Mattis (USMC, Ret.), former CENTCOM Commander)

“An important and compelling examination of the American war machine, reported from inside the Pentagon, the great beast itself. Outstanding.” (Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb)

“Ambitious and astute.”

“For anyone troubled by our murky and perpetual wars, Rosa Brooks offers a deeply challenging and delightfully provocative answer to the question: What the hell is going on here, and what can we do about it?” (Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment)

“Rosa Brooks asks us to confront hard but essential questions about war, peace, liberty, morality, and the rule of law. As challenging as these issues are, she has a gift for wrapping them in gripping stories and delightfully witty prose. Reading How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything is like having a conversation with a smart, wry, and unsentimental friend who guides and pushes us toward a new set of answers.” (Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of New America and former president of the American Society of International Law)

“In a masterful argument, sometimes between her own contradictory feelings, Rosa Brooks shows how battle lines have been blurred. Soldiers work, and sometimes rule, in areas once the uncontested realm of civilians. It is another complex, potentially dangerous, challenge that we must work to understand. Start with this book.” (General Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Ret.), former Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan)

“How Everything Became War is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the continuing evolution of the modern military, and who is prepared to engage in serious thinking about the future of armed conflict.”

“A trenchant, timely new book.... Approaching her sprawling subject in a rambling voice that mixes politics, human rights, history, literature, travel to desolate lands and some of her own story, Brooks produces an ambitious, courageous tome that helps both sides of the wide civilian-military divide.”

A MUST READ FOR ALL SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN

Rosa has given me hope that people still exist that want to make earth better.

An eye opener

It was very difficult subject to listen to. Fighting evil with evil. At the end, crying women and children.

Asumingly optimistic

Narration is smooth. Full of assumptions about what is best for the United States in respect to foreign relationships but balanced with plenty of fact. Brooks brings up alot of things that are worth more introspection.

Good & Important

Lots of excellent bit a bit professorial

& redundant--I did learn A lot. This conversation long overdue.

Absolutely stunning

an amazing account of the present with a thoughtful account of what the future can, and maybe should, hold. must read! narrator and author are both fantastic