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Pentagon Capitalism

How the Cold War US Military Modeled Itself on Private Business
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Brief Description
A pioneering study of the Cold War military-industrial complex shows how defence leaders reorganised the US armed forces in the image of commercial enterprise. The strategic landscape of the Cold War generated political support for a permanent US military force of unprecedented scale. Faced with the... Read More
Format: Hardback
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Pentagon Capitalism traces the Cold War evolution of the US military into something resembling a for-profit corporation. Seeking to manage an increasingly unwieldy military bureaucracy, defense leaders sought lessons from business consultants, imposed Taylorist discipline, turned officers into managers, and privatized ever more security functions.

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A pioneering study of the Cold War military-industrial complex shows how defence leaders reorganised the US armed forces in the image of commercial enterprise.

The strategic landscape of the Cold War generated political support for a permanent US military force of unprecedented scale. Faced with the problem of managing this behemoth, leaders of the defence bureaucracy looked to private industry for inspiration: since the military now resembled a huge industrial conglomerate, they reasoned, it should be run like a business. A. J. Murphy explores the profound consequences of translating military structures of command, logistics, and warfare into capitalist terms.

In the realm of budgeting and finance, defence reformers refashioned the supply process as a buy-and-sell transaction between units, requiring officers to express their need for equipment and labour in dollar terms. Bureaucrats embraced Taylorist work measurement to supervise everything from clerical filing to the production of massive weapons systems. The services even engaged management consultants to establish officer-training academies modelled on the Harvard Business School.

After the Vietnam War, many military leaders pushed back, questioning “managerialism” and calling for a return to traditional concepts of command. Civilian critics also chimed in, protesting the callousness of the business-minded secretary of defence, Robert McNamara, who famously measured success and failure in body counts. By this time, however, the language and values of management had thoroughly infiltrated the military’s institutional structure and daily operations. As Pentagon Capitalism makes clear, the reorganisation of the defence bureaucracy along the lines of a for-profit firm durably altered the experience of military work and facilitated the lasting privatisation of US national security.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780674272811

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 04 August 2026

Country: United States

Imprint: Harvard University Press

Illustration: 9 photos, 18 illus., 1 table

Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 19.0mm

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 235.0mm

Weight: 592g

Pages: 272

Collections

A J Murphy A. J. Murphy Education & Reference Finance & Economics Finance & Investment History & Archaeology History & Military Military History Non-Fiction Politics & Current Affairs

About the Author

A. J. Murphy is Assistant Professor of History at Brandeis University.

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