In the years following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003, an old question has received new attention: How does war affect the state and its citizens? This line of inquiry has been pursued by thoughtful citizens and thinkers for most of human history, and it counts Thucydides and Aristotle among the many who have contributed to the discussion. The book that follows is an attempt to shed new light on this ancient and universal question in the American context.

This question is particularly timely to consider in the United States, not only because events of the last decade have (once again) thrust it to the forefront of the nation's consciousness, but also because political scientists – ideally, a source to which today's thoughtful citizens and thinkers might turn for insights into these kinds of perennial concerns – have largely avoided it. Political scientists studying the United States usually limit their causal variables to those that can be found within the nation's borders. Regrettably, this narrow approach leaves out an enormous explanatory factor: foreign wars. The under appreciation of major U.S. wars as a causal variable in the domestic realm limits our understanding of American politics and government. A few leading scholars have recently pointed out this deficiency. As David R. Mayhew contends: