Our Book Spotlight this month returns to a target it illuminated in 2014 with “War Is A Racket” by General Smedley Butler. It came to mind again because we had a new client in the shop recently who was pleasantly surprised by our Book and Bumper Sticker library. Tom showed her around himself, and she left with a prescient quote from Abraham Lincoln and a copy of General Butler’s famous book. 
(And of course, a flawlessly operating vehicle). At any rate, that was the last copy we had on the shelves, and Tom ordered a new stock to replace it. If you want a copy of one of the classics of anti-war literature, written by a two-time Medal of Honor recipient who was once the most decorated Marine in US history, then we have several copies here at the shop. We usually just lend our books, but in this case just ask on your next visit and we’ll let you have one for free (while supplies last).
“War Is A Racket” by General Smedley Butler
(Synopsis from WikiPedia; click the book cover to go to the Powells.com site)
‘War Is a Racket’ is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired United States Marine Corps Major General and two time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley D. Butler. In them, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit (war profiteering) from warfare.
After his retirement from the Marine Corps, Butler 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 small book with the same title that was published in 1935 by Round Table Press, Inc., of New York. The booklet was also 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, the “as told to” author of Butler’s oral autobiographical adventures, praised Butler’s “moral as well as physical courage”.
HISTORICAL FUN FACT!
Did you know the US Government was once the target of a coup attempt? From Wikipedia…
“In 1933, [Butler] became involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot, when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt, with Butler selected to lead a march of veterans to become dictator, similar to other Fascist regimes at that time. The individuals involved all denied the existence of a plot and the media ridiculed the allegations. A final report by a special House of Representatives Committee confirmed some of Butler’s testimony.”
Click here for more on the Business Coup from NPR
