“A brisk, sweeping, and utterly persuasive account of the relationship between foreign bases and the U.S. propensity for war. The case that David Vine makes is irrefutable: The former spawn the latter.”

Andrew Bacevich, author of The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory

“David Vine’s The United States of War puts a much needed pin to the balloon of American exceptionalism. An invaluable guide to a country that, long before Orwell came along, said war was peace and interventionism was the highest form of anticolonialism. The United States of War is especially important now, as we try to make sense of a presidential administration that, in the name of so-called isolationism, has left a trail of global destruction in its wake.”

Greg Grandin, author of The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

“David Vine’s newest book connects Fort Lauderdale to Okinawa. It makes me realize I can’t make adequate sense of U.S. militarism today if I don’t take seriously the history of Native Americans. The book will make us all globally smarter and a lot more curious.”

Cynthia Enloe, author of Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

“Like David Vine’s previous book, Base Nation, his new book provides a clear look at rampant U.S. imperialism as exhibited by U.S. overseas basing at 800 locations across the globe. The United States of War is an agonizing read even if the myth of U.S. exceptionalism is already badly tattered. In short, ‘exceptionalism’ only applies if one means unique brutality, violence, ruthlessness, unparalleled pursuit of self-interest, and imperialism of the most blatant and degrading sort—an exceptionalism that has meant the deaths of millions, the maiming of millions more, and the wandering from state to state of even more millions displaced by war. It is not a book to read curled up by a warm winter fire; rather, it’s a book that will stir your soul, if you have one left, to action.”

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, USA (Ret), former chief of staff, U.S. Department of State, and Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary