David M. Kennedy is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University and the Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West. He won the Bancroft Prize for Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Over Here: The First World War and American Society, and won the Pulitzer Prize for History for Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. He is also the editor of the renowned Oxford History of the United States.

"Academic yet accessible, this volume offers thoughtful and occasionally disturbing insights into the workings of the world's most powerful war machine." --Publishers Weekly

"The world has changed dramatically for the American military in recent years. The volunteer army, re-examined in this book, has seen increased media scrutiny, questions arising from the use of contractors in war zones, and-of course-new technologies like remotely piloted aircraft that have dramatically changed the nature of warfare. And yet there are few scholarly works that look comprehensively at the challenges that the armed forces face and the responses that are required. The thoughtful essays in David Kennedy's new book explore this uniquely American institution both through the lens of history and current circumstances. We owe it to our servicemen and women and to those who command them to examine critically and debate the state of military affairs. This book is a significant contribution to that cause."-Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State

"The Modern American Military is essential reading. It brightly illuminates how profoundly the armed services have changed with the advent of new enemies, new weapons, new doctrines and a new generation of volunteer forces. Equally important, it insightfully shows how those changes are reshaping the critical relationship between the American military and American society."-Philip Taubman, former New York Times Washington bureau chief, consulting professor at Stanford University and author of The Partnership, Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb

"A collection of incisive and controversial essays covering matters as diverse - and essential - as military culture and technology, contracting and doctrine, this is a book for anyone interested in the armed forces of what remains the most powerful country on earth."-Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies