After the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe's 'lone superpower', then as a 'reluctant sheriff', and finally, in the wake of 9/11, as a 'New Rome'. In this best-seller, Chalmers Johnson explores the new militarism that is transforming America and compelling its people to pick up the burden of empire.

Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson turns to the present, showing how that militarism is already putting an end to the age of globalization, bankrupting the United States, and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback. The Sorrows of Empire suggests that the former American republic has already crossed its Rubicon - with the Pentagon in the lead.