War Is A Racket

Complete 1935 edition of War is a Racket by retired Major General Smedley D. Butler USMC. Butler turns against his life-long profession and exposes war as a racket, in which the few profit and the many pay the aching costs. This is a hard-hitting book by a hard-hitting soldier. He does more than expose and denounce the racket of war. He outlines a program for the control of wars in future-a simple, hard headed program, based on his own experience, his knowledge, and his patriotism. Here is a man who knows, writing of things he knows about. All students of thought should get this historic book. This 1935 edition is provided in a slim volume with full text at an affordable price. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER ONE WAR IS A RACKET CHAPTER TWO WHO MAKES THE PROFITS? CHAPTER THREE WHO PAYS THE BILLS? CHAPTER FOUR HOW TO SMASH THIS RACKET! CHAPTER FIVE TO HELL WITH WAR! ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Complete 1935 edition of War is a Racket by retired Major General Smedley D. Butler USMC. Butler turns against his life-long profession and exposes war as a racket, in which the few profit and the many pay the aching costs. This is a hard-hitting book by a hard-hitting soldier. He does more than expose and denounce the racket of war. He outlines a program for the control of wars in future-a simple, hard headed program, based on his own experience, his knowledge, and his patriotism. Here is a man who knows, writing of things he knows about. All students of thought should get this historic book. This 1935 edition is provided in a slim volume with full text at an affordable price. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE CHAPTER ONE WAR IS A RACKET CHAPTER TWO WHO MAKES THE PROFITS? CHAPTER THREE WHO PAYS THE BILLS? CHAPTER FOUR HOW TO SMASH THIS RACKET! CHAPTER FIVE TO HELL WITH WAR! ABOUT THE AUTHOR

2024 Reprint of the 1935 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Butler was a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient. Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. After Butler retired from the US Marine Corps in October 1931, he made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech "War Is a Racket". The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version as a short book published in 1935. His work was condensed in Reader's Digest as a book supplement, which helped popularize his message. In an introduction to the Reader's Digest version, Lowell Thomas, who wrote Butler's oral autobiography, praised Butler's "moral as well as physical courage". Butler points to a variety of examples, mostly from World War I, where industrialists, whose operations were subsidized by public funding, were able to generate substantial profits, making money from mass human suffering. The work is divided into five chapters: War is a racket Who makes the profits? Who pays the bills? How to smash this racket! To hell with war! It contains this summary: War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of very many.

2024 Reprint of the 1935 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Butler was a retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient. Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. After Butler retired from the US Marine Corps in October 1931, he made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech "War Is a Racket". The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version as a short book published in 1935. His work was condensed in Reader's Digest as a book supplement, which helped popularize his message. In an introduction to the Reader's Digest version, Lowell Thomas, who wrote Butler's oral autobiography, praised Butler's "moral as well as physical courage". Butler points to a variety of examples, mostly from World War I, where industrialists, whose operations were subsidized by public funding, were able to generate substantial profits, making money from mass human suffering. The work is divided into five chapters: War is a racket Who makes the profits? Who pays the bills? How to smash this racket! To hell with war! It contains this summary: War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of very many.

Critics of war are often labeled treasonous lunatics. Even those who are critical of the government are scrutinized and dragged through the mud. Young men and women volunteer to fight wars on their nation's behalf, and we should commend them for their actions, but we should question the steps to board ships and planes bound for foreign soil before their military service is required. Major General Smedley Butler was a 2x Medal of Honor recipient and an advocate for those he lead to war. His legacy is rich with valor in combat but also the bureaucratic fight on the homefront. From exposing war-profiteering to campaigning for veterans benefits that provide returning US troops with rich opportunities in the present day, "Old Gimlet Eye" was an American hero you surely did not read about in school. "War is a racket, it always has been," and it still is.

Critics of war are often labeled treasonous lunatics. Even those who are critical of the government are scrutinized and dragged through the mud. Young men and women volunteer to fight wars on their nation's behalf, and we should commend them for their actions, but we should question the steps to board ships and planes bound for foreign soil before their military service is required. Major General Smedley Butler was a 2x Medal of Honor recipient and an advocate for those he lead to war. His legacy is rich with valor in combat but also the bureaucratic fight on the homefront. From exposing war-profiteering to campaigning for veterans benefits that provide returning US troops with rich opportunities in the present day, "Old Gimlet Eye" was an American hero you surely did not read about in school. "War is a racket, it always has been," and it still is.

A timeless exposé by Major General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket reveals how profit, not patriotism, drives conflict. Drawing on his military career, Butler condemns war's corruption and exploitation, warning citizens to recognize and resist the interests that sacrifice lives for financial gain.

A timeless expos? by Major General Smedley D. Butler, War is a Racket reveals how profit, not patriotism, drives conflict. Drawing on his military career, Butler condemns war's corruption and exploitation, warning citizens to recognize and resist the interests that sacrifice lives for financial gain.

US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler collected an award cabinet full of medals for his battlefield bravery. But perhaps his bravest act of all was to declare, after his retirement in the early 1930s, who was really winning (and losing) during the bloody clashes. It was business interests, he revealed, who commercially benefited from warfare. War Is a Racket is the title of the influential speech Butler delivered on a tour across the United States, as well the expanded version of the talk that was later published in 1935 and is now reprinted here. This seminal piece of writing rings as true today as it did during Butler's lifetime. In his introduction, Jesse Ventura reviews Butler's original writings and relates them to our current political climate explaining how right he was, and how wrong our current system is. With an insightful new foreword by Salon.com founder David Talbot, and a new afterword by activist Cindy Sheehan, this portable reference will appeal to anyone interested in the state of our country and the entire world. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

US Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler collected an award cabinet full of medals for his battlefield bravery. But perhaps his bravest act of all was to declare, after his retirement in the early 1930s, who was really winning (and losing) during the bloody clashes. It was business interests, he revealed, who commercially benefited from warfare. War Is a Racket is the title of the influential speech Butler delivered on a tour across the United States, as well the expanded version of the talk that was later published in 1935 and is now reprinted here. This seminal piece of writing rings as true today as it did during Butler's lifetime. In his introduction, Jesse Ventura reviews Butler's original writings and relates them to our current political climate explaining how right he was, and how wrong our current system is. With an insightful new foreword by Salon.com founder David Talbot, and a new afterword by activist Cindy Sheehan, this portable reference will appeal to anyone interested in the state of our country and the entire world. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.