TY  - BOOK
AU  - Connelly,Matthew James
TI  - The declassification engine: what history reveals about America's top secrets 
SN  - 9781101973677 (paperback)
AV  - JK 468 C752d 2024
U1  - 352.3/790973 
PY  - 2024///
CY  - New York
PB  - Vintage Books
KW  - Transparency (Ethics) in government
KW  - United States
KW  - Transparencia en el gobierno
KW  - Estados Unidos
KW  - Government information
KW  - Access control
KW  - Información gubernamental
KW  - Control de acceso
KW  - Public administration
KW  - Administración pública
KW  - Security classification (Government documents)
KW  - Executive privilege (Government information)
KW  - Official secrets
KW  - Secretos de estado
KW  - Classification de sécurité (Documents gouvernementaux)
KW  - États-Unis
KW  - Privilège de l'exécutif (Information sur l'État)
KW  - Secrets d'État
KW  - Information sur l'État
KW  - Accès
KW  - Contrôle
KW  - Administration publique (Science)
KW  - Politics and government
KW  - Politique et gouvernement
N1  - Includes bibliographical references (pages [407]-502) and index; Preface: Should this book be legal? --; The radical transparency of the American republic: a reintroduction --; Pearl Harbor: the original secret --; The bomb: born secret --; Code making and code breaking: the secret of secrets --; The military-industrial complex: the dirty secret of civil-military relations --; Surveillance: other people's secrets --; Weird science: secrets that are stranger than fiction --; Following the money: trade secrets --; Spin: the flipside of secrecy --; There is no there there: the best-kept secret --; Deleting the archive: the ultimate secret --; Conclusion: The end of history as we know it
N2  - "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."
ER  -