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This book offers a critical analysis of the rise of the US to global hegemony against a background of increased erosion of democracy and rule of law, and a rising linear pattern of near-absolute capitalist development. The author argues that the significant shrinkage of the ideological spectrum globally, as a result of worrisome levels of business and government interpenetration, has created a dangerous ´prefascist configuration´ whereby unthinkable levels of violence have been normalized through the use of technologies such as drones, increasingly condoned even by ´liberal´ groups and the so-called political left. Using the example of the Obama administration and its increased reliance on drone assassinations, the volume makes a case for the dangers that lie in today´s unique convergence of lack of transparency in government, business-government interpenetration, informal social regimentation, and militarization of capitalism.

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Part I: Theoretical Perspective: Global Hegemony
1. Introduction: Moral-Political Philosophy, A Spectrum Shift Rightward
2. Advancing Monopoly Capitalism: A Totalitarian Mental Landscape

3. Hierarchical Structuring of the Social Order: Ideological Implications
4. Interpenetration: Business-Government Co-Partnership
5. Comparative Probing of Fascism: Japan and America
6. Liberal Dimensions of Structural Uniformity: Capitalism and National Power
Part II: Praxis: Customary Practice or Conduct

7. Framework of Corporatism: Contrasts in Leadership (FDR vs. Obama)
8. Political Reflections: Education of a (Sometime) Radical
9. Master of Counterrevolution: Obama-Character and Policies
10. Butchers of the Beltway: Anatomy of "Legitimated Violence"
11. American/Israeli War Crimes: National Policies Engendering Fear
12. Contempt for the Law: Presidential Subterfuge
13. Nadir of Public Morality: The Age of the Drone
14. The Drone and Aberrant Government: Normalization of the Unthinkable
15. On Distance and Disconnection: Entering a Moral Black Hole
16. "Greater Leverage": Military-Speak for Imperialism
17. A Moment in American Policy: The Death of Anwar al-Awlaki
18. Transgressions of Moral Law: Enlarged Scope of Legal Authority
19. Stirrings Toward Usurpation: Defying the Rule of Law
20. Echoes of the Cold War: A Strategy of Pre-Emptive Strikes
21. Epilogue: Threads Left Unexplored: Objectification and Bureaucratization

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Norman Pollack was Professor of History emeritus at Michigan State University and previously taught at Yale University and Wayne State University, USA. His published works include The Populist Response to Industrial America, The Just Polity, and The Humane Economy. In his last years, he frequently wrote for the online magazine Counterpunch.

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