Is war an accident of history, or a system that someone keeps running? The Preservation of War takes that question seriously. Moving from the Roman Republic to the American one, it follows the way ambition, money and fear have turned free governments into empires, and asks whether a nation can still choose a different path. Its authors draw on generals, statesmen, philosophers and scripture, from Cato and Cincinnatus to Eisenhower and Smedley Butler, to show how wars have been sustained long after their causes were gone. Along the way they confront false flags and forged pretexts, the fate of Patton and MacArthur, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the shadowy networks that critics have blamed for shaping the modern world.