How did the global Cold War influence American politics at home? For Might and Right traces the story of how Cold War defense spending remade participatory politics, producing a powerful and dynamic political coalition that reached across party lines. This "Cold War coalition" favored massive defense spending over social welfare programs, bringing together a diverse array of actors from across the nation, including defense workers, community boosters, military contractors, current and retired members of the armed services, activists, and politicians. Faced with neoliberal austerity and uncertainty surrounding America's foreign policy after the 1960s, increased military spending became a bipartisan solution to create jobs and stimulate economic growth, even in the absence of national security threats.

Using a rich array of archival sources, Michael Brenes draws important connections between economic inequality and American militarism that enhance our understanding of the Cold War's continued impact on American democracy and the resilience of the military-industrial complex, up to the age of Donald Trump.

MICHAEL BRENES is associate director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and lecturer in history at Yale University.

"Michael Brenes has written an intriguing and thought-provoking work . . . For Might and Right is a unique blend of political history, class history, and domestic Cold War history that explains the evolution of the 'Cold War coalition' and its transformative effect on the United States during the Cold War and into the 1990s."—Journal of American History

"For Might and Right enhances our understanding of the American political economy of defence spending in the Cold War and beyond . . . This book is also a welcome addition to the literature on the rise of the American Right, and should interest an audience as diverse as the ‘Cold War coalition’ itself."—Diplomacy Statecraft

"Brenes has significantly added to our understanding of the political economy of the Cold War and the reshaping of American values from the New Deal to the contemporary moment. A truly engrossing and important story told with depth and skill."—Mitchell B. Lerner, author of The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Foreign Policy

"For Might and Right will appeal not only to Cold War scholars but to anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century politics, liberalism or conservatism, and the history of U.S. foreign policy. A must-read."—Michael Koncewicz, author of They Said No to Nixon: Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuses of Power

"Michael Brenes's remarkable and original study of the material life of anticommunism shows how deeply it reshaped not only ideological commitments but the daily economic experiences of millions of Americans. A beautifully researched and powerfully argued work of history, For Might and Right transforms our understanding of the Cold War."—Kim Phillips-Fein, author of Fear City: New York's Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics

"The book makes a valuable contribution to the political history of defense spending during the Cold War and especially to understandings of how various interest groups sought to harness defense spending for their own economic and ideological purposes."—H-Diplo

"Brenes’ research provides a fast-paced, enjoyable introduction to a crucial period in American economic, political, and military history. It also raises further questions that are worth investigating by political scientists and historians alike."—International Journal