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ISBN 978-0-14-312297-5 $17.00 ($18.00 CAN)
History 5 1 /2 x 8 7 /16 368 pp. Rights: E00
Pub history: The Penguin Press hc 978-1-59420-324-4
On sale: 8/27/2013
SuGGeSTeD ORDeR
“ Ambitious and valuable.”
—The Washington Post
“ Unger should be commended. . . .
Persuasive.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“ A thoughtful, judicious,
immensely readable, and
vitally important book.”
— Andrew J. Bacevich, author of
Washington Rules and The Limits
of Power
From the New York Times’s veteran foreign
policy editorialist, a lucid analysis of the
harm caused by America’s increasingly
misdirected national security state
The Emergency State
America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs
David C. Unger
America is trapped in a state of war that has consumed our
national life since before Pearl Harbor. Over seven decades and
several bloody wars, Democratic and Republican politicians alike
have assembled an increasingly complicated, ineffective, and
outdated network of security services. Yet this pursuit has not
only damaged our democratic institutions and undermined our
economic strengths; it has fundamentally failed to make us safer.
In The Emergency State, senior New York Times writer
David C. Unger reveals the hidden costs of America’s bipartisan
obsession with achieving absolute national security and traces
a series of missed opportunities—from the end of World War
II through the presidency of Barack Obama—when we could
have rethought our defense strategy but did not. Provocative,
insightful, and refreshingly nonpartisan, this is the definitive
untold story of how America became so vulnerable—and how it
can build real security again.
n A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice pick
n Over the course of 30 years at the New York Times,
David C. Unger has written more than 3,500 articles
n Visit theemergencystate.tumblr.com
DaviD C. ungeR has been an editorial writer at the
New York Times for more than thirty years and a member of
the paper’s editorial board for twenty-four years. He is also a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations and teaches at the
Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University Nitze School of
Advanced International Studies. He lives in Bologna, Italy.
ClassiC Penguin
SePTeMBeR
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