While Senator Arthur Vandenberg famously declared that "politics stops at the water's edge," Zelizer (history and public affairs, Princeton U.), in this political history of post-World War II America, shows that the relationship between domestic politics and national security policy has long been a central issue of American political life. In investigating the domestic politics of the national security state, he explores the tensions between the "arsenal of democracy," as Franklin Roosevelt once formulated it while urging Americans to support the British resistance to the Nazis, and democracy itself. Rather than presenting any overarching theory for the relationship between domestic politics and national security policy, Zelizer prefers to paint a complex picture, showing how politicians have navigated electoral, ideological, partisan, and institutional pressures while dealing with international issues and how these issues have in turn influenced different components of domestic politics. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)