Presidents of War

An excellent read, masterfully written.
Beschloss fleshed in a lot of detail about the motivations for the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, and the Korean War that weren't in my history classes in school or in my previous reading. They make more sense to me now, twisted and perverted as that sense is.
It also demonstrates how in every war, the power of the President to wage war has increased, quite contrary to the founders intention in the Constitution. Partly this is because the founders were so naive about how the nature of international conflict was to evolve centuries later, a failure which is certainly understandable. But it is also our fault. Allowing ourselves to fall prey to the myth of the inerrant, all-wise founders allows those who wield 21st century weapons to evade the ineffective controls designed by 18th century imaginations.