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NATO What You Need to Know (2024). Medea Benjamin and David Swanson. OR Books.
The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With (2023). David Swanson. ISBN 979-8-9869811-0-9
Snippers Saves the World (2021). David Swanson. ISBN 978-1734783704
Leaving World War II Behind (2021). David Swanson. ISBN 978-1734783759
20 Dictators Currently Supported by the U.S. (2020). David Swanson. ISBN 978-1734783797
Curing Exceptionalism (2018). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0998085937
War Is Never Just (2016). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0998085906
War Is A Lie (2010, 2016). Just World Books. ISBN 978-1682570005
Killing Is Not A Way of Life (2014). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083061
War No More: The Case For Abolition (2013). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083054
Tube World (2012). Illustrated by Shane Burke. David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083047
The Military Industrial Complex at 50 (2011). Editor and contributor. David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083078
When The World Outlawed War (2011). David Swanson. ISBN 978-0983083092
Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union (2009). Sevent Stories Press. ISBN 978-1583228883
The 35 Articles of Impeachment (2008). Introduction. Feral House. ISBN 978-1932595420
BOOKS:
NATO What You Need to Know (2024) — With co-author Medea Benjamin: What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? What role is played by its members and partners? Does the largest military alliance ever to exist serve the cause of peace or the causes of weapons sales and war mongering? Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the alliance, this sharp, concise account examines NATO’s origins, structure, and its goals at a time of mounting global tension. NATO has remade itself repeatedly, as its past purposes have disappeared. In the last 35 years it has been part of wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. It has played a major role in Ukraine, and supported warmaking by Israel. NATO is now expanding rapidly, both in geography and in scope, adding partners from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia, and claiming a role in policing, immigration, economics, public budgeting, scientific research, and environmental protection. With pointed investigations of how NATO’s decisions are made, the widely misunderstood question of the way it is funded, its relationship to international law, and the available alternatives to it, NATO: What You Need to Know is an indispensable primer on an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation. Read this review: “After 75 Years, What Is NATO Good For?” By Matt Bivens, Truthdig, July 9, 2024.
The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With (2023) — The Monroe Doctrine was and is a justification for actions, some good, some indifferent, but the overwhelming bulk reprehensible. The Monroe Doctrine remains in place, both explicitly and dressed up in novel language. Additional doctrines have been built on its foundations. This book looks at the creation, evolution, and use of the Monroe Doctrine over the years since 1823, and proposes a radically different approach for the U.S. government to take with Latin America and the world.
Snippers Saves the World (2021) — This is a short illustrated chapter book for animal and adventure lovers of all ages. Snippers is a small dog with other dog and cat friends in his neighborhood, but when the bad times come and the humans declare it unsafe to go outdoors, it’s Snipper’s friendship with a ground hog that brings him into an enormous secret and makes him part of a worldwide effort to save all life on Earth, possibly even including the humans.
Leaving World War II Behind (2020) — “This is a book of wide synthesis and trenchant commentary. Keep it near to hand for those all-too-frequent moments when you hear someone using World War II to justify yet another horrific military adventure.” —Nicholson Baker, author, Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization
20 Dictators Currently Supported by the U.S. (2020) — The U.S. government has a habit of supporting brutal (and comically outrageous) dictators. This book offers 20 current examples, together with some background on historical patterns, some explanation for why this happens, and a proposal to put an end to it.
Peace Almanac (2019) — A page and an important fact for each day of the year. This Peace Almanac lets you know important steps, progress, and setbacks in the movement for peace that have taken place on each day of the year. This Peace Almanac should remain good for every year until all war is abolished and sustainable peace established. Profits from sales of the print version fund the work of World BEYOND War.
Curing Exceptionalism: What’s wrong with how we think about the United States? What can we do about it?(2018) — U.S. exceptionalism, the idea that the United States of America is superior to other nations, is no more fact-based and no less harmful than racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry. The purpose of this book is to persuade you of that statement. This book examines how the United States actually compares with other countries, how people think about the comparison, what damage that thinking does, and what changes we might want to consider making.
Co-Author of A Global Security System: An Alternative to War (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018-19).
War Is Never Just (2016) — This book builds a case that the time has come to set behind us the idea that a war can ever be just. This critique of “Just War” theory finds the criteria such theories use to be either unmeasurable, unachievable, or amoral, and the perspective taken too narrow. This book argues that belief in the possibility of a just war does tremendous damage by facilitating enormous investment in war preparations–which strips resources from human and environmental needs while creating momentum for numerous unjust wars.
War Is A Lie: Second Edition (2016) — widely praised best-selling classic. “There are three insightful books I’ve read that explain how and why no good can come of the current U.S. reliance on military force and war in seeking its desired ‘Pax Americana’: War Is A Racket by General Smedley Butler; War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges, and War Is A Lie by David Swanson.” — Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent, whistleblower, and Time magazine person of the year.
Killing Is Not a Way of Life (2014) — This is a record of nearly a year’s worth of immediate reactions to the world. These bits of writing originated between January and November of 2014. Topics include the earth, justice, wars, and war culture.
War No More: The Case for Abolition (2013) — This book, with a foreword by Kathy Kelly, presents what numerous reviewers have called the best existing argument for the abolition of war, demonstrating that war can be ended, war should be ended, war is not ending on its own, and that we must end war.
When the World Outlawed War (2011) — Named by Ralph Nader as one of the books from 2011 that everyone should read. This is an inspiring but forgotten story from the 1920s of how people created a treaty to ban all war — a treaty still on the books but not remembered.
Iraq War Among World’s Worst Events (2013) — At 10 years since the launch of Operation Iraqi Liberation (to use the original name with the appropriate acronym, OIL) and over 22 years since Operation Desert Storm, there is little evidence that any significant number of people in the United States have a realistic idea of what our government has done to the people of Iraq, or of how these actions compare to other horrors of world history.
Tube World (2012) — This children’s book has received enthusiastically positive reviews from kids and their parents.
The Military Industrial Complex at 50 (2012) — the most comprehensive collection available explaining what the military industrial complex is, where it comes from, what damage it does, what further destruction it threatens, and what can be done and is being done to chart a different course.
War Is A Lie – First Edition (2010) – Audio Book
Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union (2009) — “There have now been many books written which chronicle the imperial, lawless presidency of the Bush era, but Swanson’s superb new book — Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union — is one of the very few to examine how we can recover from it and reverse its pernicious trends.” –Glenn Greenwald
The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush (2008) — Now more than ever.