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Published Feb 2023
560 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
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?
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 does not want us to know but also why they don'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.
"The U.S. government is hopelessly awash in secret information, and this gripping history describes how we got that way and lays out the dismal consequences.... [Connelly] delivers a wild, page-turning ride packed with intelligence mistakes, embarrassing decisions, expensive failed weapons programs, and bizarre research that has ranged from the silly to the murderous.... Yet more evidence, brilliantly delivered, of the extent of the U.S. government's dysfunction." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Though the data analysis and history lessons can be dense, Connelly enlivens the narrative with sharp character sketches and acerbic wit. It's an impassioned and well-informed wake-up call." - Publishers Weekly
"What [Connelly] discovered was unnerving: a highly fallible, exorbitantly expensive (over $18 billion annually, by Connelly's estimate), virtually uncontrollable [classification] system that ultimately renders its administrators unaccountable to the American taxpayers funding it.... One hopes this book will generate serious discussion of the issue." - Booklist
"Perfect for readers intrigued by the intersection of politics and history." - Library Journal
"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
"In The Declassification Engine, Matthew Connelly provides an incisive, unexpected account of the history and practice of official secrecy, offering a glimpse into a world that truly exists in the shadows. By showing the corrosive effects of state secrecy, he successfully makes the case for a different attitude to public information." - Anne Applebaum, New York Times best-selling author of Twilight of Democracy
This information about The Declassification Engine was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Matthew Connelly is a professor of international and global history at Columbia University and the principal investigator at History Lab, an NSF-funded project to apply data science to the problem of preserving the public record and accelerating its release. He received his B.A. from Columbia and his Ph.D. 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.
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