All my life Americans have been accustomed to thinking of theirs as 'the richest freest' country in the world. By most measurements it was long a contender for that honor and - among the larger countries if equal weight were given to wealth and indices of freedom - probably did deserve to be so described.
It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power in number in pride in absolute dominion over the economy and the society.