Merchants of death was an epithet used in the USA in the 1930s to attack industries and banks that supplied and funded the First World War (then called the Great War). The term was popular in anti-war circles of both the left and the right and was used extensively regarding the Senate hearings in 1936 by the Nye Committee. Originally published in 1934, this book uses the term to expose the international arms industry at the time. It is a careful and subtle, but still passionate, attack on those who would use government to profit themselves at the expense of other people’s lives and property. The book not only makes the case against the war machine; it provides a scintillating history of war profiteering, one authoritative enough for citation and academic study.