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John V. Denson, ed., The Costs of War: America's Pyrrhic Victories, 2nd ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999. Pp. 535. $34.95, hardcover.
When economists compute the costs of war, they typically look at the spending on war and war preparation and at the implicit tax in the form of conscription. That is not an inclusive enough measure of the cost, according to the editor, and many of the authors, of The Costs of War. The book's editor, John V. Denson, writes:
In the war-torn 20th century, we rarely hear that one of the main costs of war is a long-term loss of liberty to winners and losers alike. There are the obvious and direct costs of the number of dead and wounded soldiers, but rarely do we hear about the lifetime struggles of combat veterans to live with their nightmares and injuries. Nor do we hear much about the long-term hidden costs of inflation, debts, and taxes. Other inevitable long-term costs of war which are not immediately obvious are damages to our culture, to our morality, and to civilization in general. (p. xxv.)
Various essays in this volume tote up these costs and, in the process, show that the growth of government in the United States during the twentieth century can be attributed mainly to war.
Many of the 20 essays in the article illuminate the relation between the conduct of the war, on the one hand, and the consequent growth in government and loss of freedom on the other. Two that do it best and most explicitly are "World War I: The Turning Point" by historian Ralph Raico, and "War and Leviathan in Twentieth-Century America: Conscription as the Keystone" by economist Robert Higgs. Raico points out that during World War I, the federal government acquired control over the production and distribution of all food and fuel in the United States. Also, federal taxes were increased massively, with the top rate on personal...