Rachel Maddow Previews New Book, 'Drift' (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow has taken to YouTube to give a sneak preview of her new book, "Drift: The Unmooring Of American Military Power."

The title, as Maddow acknowledged in the video, is rather wonkish. But, as she explained, the subject is a simple one. She said she wanted to explore "why it is that in my adult life we have been at war so much of the time." In 2012, she continued, "We don't even really think of ourselves as being at war anymore. Being at war is the new normal for America. It should not be like that. It's not supposed to feel normal for us to be at war."

The book goes from Vietnam to the present day to explore Maddow's thesis: that a combination of secrecy, power-grabs and internal changes have both shoved near-permanent war into the background and, at the same time, woven it more deeply into the fabric of the country.

Maddow said that, even amid that gloom, the book has a hopeful note.

"We can stop making secret wars," she said. "We can start making wars big and noisy and public again ... we should also want them to stop and politicians should have to listen when we make that desire clear."