Overview

An argument that domestic surveillance erodes civil liberties and fails to protect the country

Full Product Details

9781439906644

Table of Contents

Reviews

Theoharis, the premier scholar of intelligence and domestic security, chronicles the evolution of counterintelligence operations conducted by the FBI from Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush... This book deserves a wide readership, as the FBI's failures in the Cold War may foretell a similar fate for the War on Terror. Summing Up: Highly recommended. CHOICE Through endless diligence, [Theoharis has] cracked some of the deliberately byzantine and misleading naming and filing practices of the Hoover-era FBI and shows us how the same kinds of rhetoric, deception, and abuse of power can, and have, extended to the present. This is a look back that makes you look up, look around, and pay attention. It's necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand the 20th century, but it's equally important for alert citizens in the post-9/11 era. School Library Journal, January 2012 The book goes into great detail about many of the specific operations carried out by the FBI, but the author makes a point related to the failure of intelligence services preceding the 9/11 attack... [He] provide[s] a well-documented summary of the expansion of the powers of the FBI and demonstrate[s] its abuses of power, the politicization of intelligence, and reasons for its failures. History: Reviews of New Books, Volume 4, Issue 4 2012

""Theoharis, the premier scholar of intelligence and domestic security, chronicles the evolution of counterintelligence operations conducted by the FBI from Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush... This book deserves a wide readership, as the FBI's failures in the Cold War may foretell a similar fate for the War on Terror. Summing Up: Highly recommended."" CHOICE ""Through endless diligence, [Theoharis has] cracked some of the deliberately byzantine and misleading naming and filing practices of the Hoover-era FBI and shows us how the same kinds of rhetoric, deception, and abuse of power can, and have, extended to the present. This is a look back that makes you look up, look around, and pay attention. It's necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand the 20th century, but it's equally important for alert citizens in the post-9/11 era."" School Library Journal, January 2012 ""The book goes into great detail about many of the specific operations carried out by the FBI, but the author makes a point related to the failure of intelligence services preceding the 9/11 attack... [He] provide[s] a well-documented summary of the expansion of the powers of the FBI and demonstrate[s] its abuses of power, the politicization of intelligence, and reasons for its failures."" History: Reviews of New Books, Volume 4, Issue 4 2012

<p> Theoharis has a long history of criticizing government security programs. No scholar has greater authority or a corpus of scholarship that is more highly respected. Abuse of Power is excellent, and it will immediately command attention--even from those who are only peripherally interested in the subject of surveillance and secrecy. What is distinctive and original about this book is that Theoharis so superbly historicizes the 9/11 response. His argument, essentially, is that the policies from the Roosevelt years were not only illegal but also ineffective in terms of preserving security. Thus, it is not surprising that they did not prevent 9/11. <br> --Richard Immerman, author of Empire for Liberty: A History of American Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz

Author Information

Athan Theoharis is Emeritus Professor of History at Marquette University and author of twenty books, including The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition and Chasing Spies: How the FBI Failed in Counterintelligence But Promoted the Politics of McCarthyism.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available