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The Declassification Engine
- What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets
- Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE • Every day, thousands of new secrets are created by the United States government. What is all this secrecy really for? And whom does it benefit?
“A brilliant, deeply unsettling look at the history and inner workings of ‘the dark state'.... At a time when federal agencies are increasingly classifying or destroying documents with historical significance, this book could not be more important.”—Eric Schlosser, New York Times best-selling author of Command and Control
Before World War II, transparent government was a proud tradition in the United States. In all but the most serious of circumstances, classification, covert operations, and spying were considered deeply un-American. But after the war, the power to decide what could be kept secret proved too tempting to give up. Since then, we have radically departed from that open tradition, allowing intelligence agencies, black sites, and classified laboratories to grow unchecked. Officials insist that only secrecy can keep us safe, but its true costs have gone unacknowledged for too long.
Using the latest techniques in data science, historian Matthew Connelly analyzes a vast trove of state secrets to unearth not only what the government really did not want us to know but also why they didn’t want us to know it. Culling this research and carefully examining a series of pivotal moments in recent history, from Pearl Harbor to drone warfare, Connelly sheds light on the drivers of state secrecy—especially incompetence and criminality—and how rampant overclassification makes it impossible to protect truly vital information.
What results is an astonishing study of power: of the greed it enables, of the negligence it protects, and of what we lose as citizens when our leaders cannot be held to account. A crucial examination of the self-defeating nature of secrecy and the dire state of our nation’s archives, The Declassification Engine is a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving the past so that we may secure our future.
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Critic reviews
A Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
“It may be the most presciently timed book ever written. . . . It's the love story between America and its secrets.”—Jon Stewart
“Connelly has defined an existential crisis: the suppression of American history. . . . The Declassification Engine makes the case that the culture of secrecy diminishes democracy. And it has now become a culture of destruction as well.”—Tim Weiner, The New York Times Book Review
“Fascinating and urgent. . . . If you believe in the founding principles of the American form of government, then the stakes could scarcely be higher.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, Foreign Affairs
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GCHQ is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the UK, and has existed for 100 years - but we still know next to nothing about it. In this ground-breaking book - the first and most definitive history of the organisation ever published - intelligence expert Richard Aldrich traces GCHQ’s development from a wartime code-breaking operation based in the Bedfordshire countryside into one of the world leading espionage organisations.
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Absolutely fascinating
- By philstopford on 04-01-24
By: Richard Aldrich
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The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
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Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
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Nemesis
- The Last Days of the American Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail the likely consequences of US dependence on a permanent war economy, and what it will mean when the globe's sole "hyperpower" is no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders - and becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all time. In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that the crisis of a financial breakdown could ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.
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The Book Bill O'Rielly Doesn't Want You To Read!
- By Joe on 04-04-07
By: Chalmers Johnson
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Code Warriors
- NSA's Codebreakers and the Secret Intelligence War Against the Soviet Union
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The National Security Agency was born out of the legendary codebreaking programs of World War II that cracked the famed Enigma machine and other German and Japanese codes, thereby turning the tide of Allied victory. In the postwar years, as the United States developed a new enemy in the Soviet Union, our intelligence community found itself targeting not soldiers on the battlefield, but suspected spies, foreign leaders, and even American citizens.
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Did Vladimir Putin Steal the American Election?
- By Cynthia on 12-01-16
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The Shadow War
- Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America
- By: Jim Sciutto
- Narrated by: Jim Sciutto
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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CNN’s chief national security correspondent reveals the invisible fronts of 21st-century warfare and identifies the ongoing battles being waged - often without the public’s full knowledge - from disinformation campaigns to advanced satellite weaponry.
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Informative and interesting, but incomplete.
- By ZenBowman on 05-25-19
By: Jim Sciutto
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The Sorrows of Empire
- Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.
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A must read.
- By Thomas on 02-07-15
By: Chalmers Johnson
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The Hacked World Order
- How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age
- By: Adam Segal
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The Internet today connects roughly 2.7 billion people around the world, and booming interest in the "Internet of things" could result in 75 billion devices connected to the web by 2020. The myth of cyberspace as a digital utopia has long been put to rest. Governments are increasingly developing smarter ways of asserting their national authority in cyberspace in an effort to control the flow, organization, and ownership of information.
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Wrong narrator for material
- By Locnar on 02-21-17
By: Adam Segal
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@War
- The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex
- By: Shane Harris
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States military currently views cyberspace as the "fifth domain" of warfare - alongside land, sea, air, and space - and the Department of Defense, National Security Agency, and CIA all field teams of hackers who can - and do - launch computer virus strikes against enemy targets. In fact, as @War shows, US hackers were crucial to our victory in Iraq.
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The short history of the US and Cyber War
- By Greg on 02-06-15
By: Shane Harris
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
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Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
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The Hundred-Year Marathon
- China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower
- By: Michael Pillsbury
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the US government's leading China experts reveals the hidden strategy fueling that country's rise - and how Americans have been seduced into helping China overtake us as the world's leading superpower.
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Fascinating perspective.
- By Rocky Mackintosh on 01-05-17
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The Hacker and the State
- Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics
- By: Ben Buchanan
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Packed with insider information based on interviews, declassified files, and forensic analysis of company reports, The Hacker and the State sets aside fantasies of cyber-annihilation to explore the real geopolitical competition of the digital age. Tracing the conflict of wills and interests among modern nations, Ben Buchanan reveals little-known details of how China, Russia, North Korea, Britain, and the United States hack one another in a relentless struggle for dominance.
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A good overview of hacking influence on government
- By Eric Jackson on 08-05-20
By: Ben Buchanan
What listeners say about The Declassification Engine
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amber
- 08-07-24
eye opener yet long winded
It doesn't give out as many secrets as the title might suggest. I would give it a listen though. There are nuggets of conversation starters and it fills in the gaps of information History Class glossed over. In fact, if my 5th grade teacher were still alive today, I would insist she read it and apologize for calling me out on bombings done in Cambodia during the early 70's. Also, the St. Louis Archives fire in 1973 affected my father-in-law. His records were lost and he had difficulty getting assistance at a VA because of it.
This book was a bit long winded, but I would listen to it again.
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- Patrick
- 06-26-23
Great read, unbiased view on the problem of over-classification
Great read, Matthew Connelly has again outdone himself with a book that gives one a new view on the past, present, and future of our nation’s secrets.
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- JPK
- 02-20-23
Informative and Deeply Disturbing
I bought the book after listening to a Jon Stewart podcast and was not disappointed.
We may live in a democracy but the government is a living Hydra with departments and leaders that manipulate and direct public policy with impunity. Government officials have an impact on public policy long after they are out of office or retire and we have limited knowledge of what and why they did what they did when they did it.
This book offers a deep dive into what we don't know and are only beginning to discover.
The AI future may not bode well for modern democracy in that transparency may reveal TMI.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JC
- 05-31-23
Great book and well read.
In our world of constant left-right rancor, this book addresses some big problems that neither side wants to fix. Its a good blend of people and modern tech with historical contexts.
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- Fedupintx
- 07-31-24
Interesting stuff, but much longer than necessary.
I learned some interesting things and the author makes some good points and observations. But the book was very repetitive, making the same points and observations over and over, while jumping around throughout history. I really didn't want to stop listening, out of fear I'd miss a salient point, but I couldn't wait for it to end.
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- Rolando Briones
- 09-26-24
Information in plain site…
Author tried to remain unbiased. Overall wonderful book; highly recommended! We need to embrace his findings.
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- Drew Ferrari
- 10-09-24
Good Idea…Needs more science
Narrator is good, story’s detailed…data science is lacking. There should be a pdf and more of a breakdown of how the team worked on finding potential anomalies.
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- Sean
- 05-09-24
Opinion masquerading as research
The narrator is great.
The material is bad.
Less than 10% of the book has anything to do with authors actual research findings. The rest is cherry picked anecdotes (available from many other sources) of failures of classification, mixed in with the author’s opinions on what the government would be better off spending time and money on.
The author means well, but their writing is so chocked with biased rhetoric that it makes it seem as if they are using their grant $ to pursue an agenda vs identify actual problems and solutions.
Hard to take it seriously.
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1 person found this helpful