Fortress California, now in paperback for the first time, links the growth of the U.S. military-industrial complex to civic leaders who competed for military bases and military contracts to ensure economic growth.

Analyzing the growth of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco from 1910 to 1961, Roger W. Lotchin discredits the assumption that the industrialization of the Sunbelt was a result of a partnership between industry and the military. He provides instead a detailed and forceful argument that municipalities used federal resources to build urban empires and metropolitan-military complexes. These have increased the flow of federal dollars into the state, thereby shifting the focus of the military-industrial complex from warfare to welfare.