Known as "the Maverick Marine" and "Fighting Hell-Devil," Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler was the most decorated U.S. Marine Corps officer in U.S. military history. Butler's 1935 lecture "War is a Racket" presents several key arguments against war and its profiteering nature. Among his points, Butler argues that wars are conducted for the benefit of a small group of insiders while the majority bear the costs, and that debt from wars is always paid by future generations. He recommends measures that, in his view, would mitigate armed conflict, including limiting the wages of executives, bankers, and arms manufacturers during wartime to match soldiers' pay.

He forcefully contends that warfare is a profit-driven enterprise that exploits patriotism for financial gain. This Warbler Classics edition includes two other seminal anti-war essays: "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau and "The Moral Equivalent of War" by William James, as well as brief biographical notes on Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler, Henry David Thoreau, and William James.