The declassification engine what history reveals about America's top secrets

"Historian Matthew Connelly analyzes the millions of state documents both accessible to the public and still under review to unearth not only what the government does not want us to know, but what it says about the very authority we bequeath to our leaders. By culling this research and studying...

Full description

Main Author: Connelly, Matthew, 1967- (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York : Pantheon Books, [2023]
Subjects:
Summary: "Historian Matthew Connelly analyzes the millions of state documents both accessible to the public and still under review to unearth not only what the government does not want us to know, but what it says about the very authority we bequeath to our leaders. By culling this research and studying a series of pivotal moments in recent history from Pearl Harbor to drone strikes, Connelly sheds light on the drivers of state secrecy (especially consolidating power or hiding incompetence) and how the classification of documents has become untenable. What results is a study of power: of the greed that develops out of its possession, of the negligence that it protects, and of what we lose as citizens when it remains unchecked"--
Physical Description: xvii, 540 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 407-502) and index.
ISBN: 9781101871577
1101871571
Author Notes: MATTHEW CONNELLY is a professor of international and global history at Columbia University, codirector of its social science institute, and the principal investigator at History Lab, a project to apply data science to the problem of preserving the public record and accelerating its release. He received his BA from Columbia and his PhD from Yale. His previous publications include A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era and Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population.