Machine generated contents note: 1. Narrating national security; Part I. Crisis, Authority, and Rhetorical Mode: The Fate of Narrative Projects, from the Battle against Isolationism to the War on Terror: 2. Domination and the art of storytelling; 3. Narrative lost: missed and mistaken opportunities; 4. Narrative won: opportunities seized; Part II. Narrative at War: Politics and Rhetorical Strategy in the Military Crucible, from Korea to Iraq: 5. The narrative politics of the battlefield; 6. Tracking the cold war consensus; 7. Tracing the cold war consensus; 8. Puzzles of the cold war, lessons for the terror war; 9. Narrative in an age of fracture; Appendices.