The Deadly Stimulant (Military Spending and American Capitalism Since World War II)

A pathbreaking history of the US military-industrial complex, by acclaimed debut historian

The Deadly Stimulant rewrites the history of postwar growth, placing defense budgets at the heart of the US economy. Historian Tim Barker shows how militarized demand underwrote prosperity, innovation, and political power, from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of the Soviet Union and on to the present day. Along the way, key protagonists in the story—Acheson, LBJ, Kissinger, Reagan—emerge in a new light.Mining declassified memoranda and economic data, Barker demonstrates that the engine of the “golden age” was not the welfare state and mass consumption but the warfare state—what he calls military Keynesianism. From the Korean War boom and Vietnam to Reagan’s rearmament and neoliberal transition, Barker tracks how Pentagon procurement reshaped regions, firms, and universities, stabilizing growth while narrowing democratic choices. Clearly written and forcefully argued, this book explains why defense spending proved politically durable, how it channelled research into high-tech industries, and why promises of a peace dividend repeatedly disappointed.