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Mobilize: How to Reboot the American Industrial Base and Stop World War III
From the CTO of Palantir comes a bold call to arms for resurrecting America’s industrial base, and winning the defense technology race that will define the twenty-first century.
America is in an undeclared state of emergency. Not since the Cold War has the US faced such powerful enemies—and our military isn’t ready. Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer of Palantir, issues an urgent call to Mobilize.
The American industrial base once underwrote American victory. Builders and workers rallied to win World War II. For most of the twentieth century, great American companies from General Mills to Chrysler had defense businesses that sent mankind into space and won the Cold War. But the forges fell silent and the furnaces went dark. America’s innovators and warfighters were ripped apart. Now China, not America, leads the world in manufacturing. America is the underdog. The good news is, we’ve been here before.
Mobilize tells the remarkable true stories of the Americans who moved heaven and earth to produce for our troops and help our country win the twentieth century. And it exposes the shocking blunders that broke the Pentagon and weakened our military.
There’s a war for America’s future, stymied between the forces of complacency and change. If we empower exceptional individuals and harness the power of capitalism and competition, America can unleash the brains and brawn we need to resurrect our industrial base, stop World War III, and help our country build—and win.
America is in an undeclared state of emergency. Not since the Cold War has the US faced such powerful enemies—and our military isn’t ready. Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer of Palantir, issues an urgent call to Mobilize.
The American industrial base once underwrote American victory. Builders and workers rallied to win World War II. For most of the twentieth century, great American companies from General Mills to Chrysler had defense businesses that sent mankind into space and won the Cold War. But the forges fell silent and the furnaces went dark. America’s innovators and warfighters were ripped apart. Now China, not America, leads the world in manufacturing. America is the underdog. The good news is, we’ve been here before.
Mobilize tells the remarkable true stories of the Americans who moved heaven and earth to produce for our troops and help our country win the twentieth century. And it exposes the shocking blunders that broke the Pentagon and weakened our military.
There’s a war for America’s future, stymied between the forces of complacency and change. If we empower exceptional individuals and harness the power of capitalism and competition, America can unleash the brains and brawn we need to resurrect our industrial base, stop World War III, and help our country build—and win.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published March 17, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 4, 2026
An eye opening book on the defence establishment. Learned about the author from the Hugh Hewitt talk radio program. This book needs a bette front cover.
Want to Read
April 24, 2026WSJ review by Tunku Varadarajan:
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"Shyam Sankar is a Silicon Valley Paul Revere. The chief technology officer of the software company Palantir, Mr. Sankar comes at us with warnings of imminent danger, although not on a galloping steed. Instead, he delivers his hair-raising message—that we’re staring at “a humiliating and bloody defeat” if we go to war with China—in a jaunty, clever and sometimes breathless book. ....
“China is preparing for war,” Mr. Sankar tells us. That country, which once hid its strength and bided its time, has decided under Xi Jinping to “flex its muscles.” The U.S., once unrivaled, now has a “peer adversary.” Worse: America’s defense industry is worryingly dependent on China. Major subcontractors to the big U.S. defense companies are, in fact, Chinese."
Sobering stuff. Palantir is an interesting outfit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
(Paywalled. As always, I'm happy to email a copy to non-subscribers)
Excerpt:
"Shyam Sankar is a Silicon Valley Paul Revere. The chief technology officer of the software company Palantir, Mr. Sankar comes at us with warnings of imminent danger, although not on a galloping steed. Instead, he delivers his hair-raising message—that we’re staring at “a humiliating and bloody defeat” if we go to war with China—in a jaunty, clever and sometimes breathless book. ....
“China is preparing for war,” Mr. Sankar tells us. That country, which once hid its strength and bided its time, has decided under Xi Jinping to “flex its muscles.” The U.S., once unrivaled, now has a “peer adversary.” Worse: America’s defense industry is worryingly dependent on China. Major subcontractors to the big U.S. defense companies are, in fact, Chinese."
Sobering stuff. Palantir is an interesting outfit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir
April 1, 2026
Excellent book! Great book for understanding how the United States can revitalize its defense industrial base and spur innovation. Loved it!
March 22, 2026
I am nearing 30 years in the military and I couldn’t agree more with the author and the conclusions in this book. I was skeptical going in because I have worked with Palentir in my last two positions and I thought this maybe a sales pitch to the American people. It wasn’t and regardless of your politics, you will see how the massive bureaucracy that is our Department of Defense and it’s congressional enablers wastes money that sometimes causes or fails to prevent casualties. 5/5 well written and the audio version was engaging and easy to listen to.
May 14, 2026
This book gets 5 stars for its importance. It alerts us to the monumental damage facing us as a nation if we do not shake off our complacency and outmoded approach to defense. It prescribes the fundamental attributes of an effective way to address our needs. It illustrates through examples that successes are happening now.
I am retired after working for fifty years in the defense industry. This book brought back so many memories of working with the government bureaucracy. There were a number of intelligent and talented government employees who cared about the mission and worked to help the projects succeed. There were also so many government employees whose focus was on their power and that of their organization. Some were very proud of competing with industry and succeeding in keeping work in-house rather than contracting to industry. In program reviews with the government, I could describe in detail a problem that we jointly needed to address and receive a yawn or total silence with no recognition that they had a responsibility to be part of the solution.
I certainly hope that this book is widely read and acted on. It is hard to be optimistic in the face of the polarization in the country, the dumbing down of school curriculum, the embrace of leftist drivel, and so much more.
I am retired after working for fifty years in the defense industry. This book brought back so many memories of working with the government bureaucracy. There were a number of intelligent and talented government employees who cared about the mission and worked to help the projects succeed. There were also so many government employees whose focus was on their power and that of their organization. Some were very proud of competing with industry and succeeding in keeping work in-house rather than contracting to industry. In program reviews with the government, I could describe in detail a problem that we jointly needed to address and receive a yawn or total silence with no recognition that they had a responsibility to be part of the solution.
I certainly hope that this book is widely read and acted on. It is hard to be optimistic in the face of the polarization in the country, the dumbing down of school curriculum, the embrace of leftist drivel, and so much more.
April 3, 2026
Lobbing-as-a-book, but a much better one than a similar book by Alex Karp (CEO of Palantir).
The book is focused on just a few ideas: the weaknesses of monopsony, the failure of "Cost Plus" model, the lack of coop between Silicon Valley and DOD/DOW.
The book is far less Trumpo-sycophantic than I thought, the author is also very carefully not to make it into an ad campaign for Palantir as a vendor - in fact, there's very little Palantir in this book.
My biggest pain-point is that this book doesn't add much (facts, knowledge, insights) - it's yet-another-tool in the massive campaign that is supposed to shift American hearts when it comes to funding modern warfare. The book is very well crafted, so it's suited for both John/Jane Doe and a local congressman. It doesn't spread FUD (e.g., by fearmongering regarding China's advances), in fact it's a masterpiece of modern PR.
As a non-American and a person generally quite aware of what tells high-performing business from the rest, I don't see much value in reading this book. So I can't recommend it honestly.
The book is focused on just a few ideas: the weaknesses of monopsony, the failure of "Cost Plus" model, the lack of coop between Silicon Valley and DOD/DOW.
The book is far less Trumpo-sycophantic than I thought, the author is also very carefully not to make it into an ad campaign for Palantir as a vendor - in fact, there's very little Palantir in this book.
My biggest pain-point is that this book doesn't add much (facts, knowledge, insights) - it's yet-another-tool in the massive campaign that is supposed to shift American hearts when it comes to funding modern warfare. The book is very well crafted, so it's suited for both John/Jane Doe and a local congressman. It doesn't spread FUD (e.g., by fearmongering regarding China's advances), in fact it's a masterpiece of modern PR.
As a non-American and a person generally quite aware of what tells high-performing business from the rest, I don't see much value in reading this book. So I can't recommend it honestly.
April 20, 2026
It's weird in the same way Karp's book was. It's a sort of disorganized collection of essays all loosely based around a sort of amorphous theme. Defense acquisition processes are broken, cost-plus contracts have to go. Some of it is just subtle flexes for Palantir much like Karp's book was. But some of the biographical chapters on people like Cukor & Higgins were cool and, I thought, compelling illustrations of some of the larger points the book attempted to drive home.
I guess nothing about this book was bad per se, but I just found it sort of underwhelming. I wanted to be floored by the intellectual energy that somebody like Sankar has in this area, and on that front it sort of fell flat. There's nothing particularly unique in here (even if the ideas are, on the whole, good). And the parts about how Palantir does everything great just feel tacky sometimes. It reads sort of like a campaign memoir for a company.
I guess nothing about this book was bad per se, but I just found it sort of underwhelming. I wanted to be floored by the intellectual energy that somebody like Sankar has in this area, and on that front it sort of fell flat. There's nothing particularly unique in here (even if the ideas are, on the whole, good). And the parts about how Palantir does everything great just feel tacky sometimes. It reads sort of like a campaign memoir for a company.
March 26, 2026
really great insight from shyam and madeline (who i got to meet). wish that literally anyone in our government would read this.
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April 1, 2026Listen to Audiobook
April 7, 2026
Abundance but bombs
April 13, 2026
This is an interesting book that looks to provide the case for expediting and streamlining the defense R&D process and procurement. The lessons learned are quite familiar and the need for a better system that is not monopolized by the big 5 and one that could better rely on immediate off the shelf adaptions is sorely needed.
May 18, 2026
Important.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews