Overview

Electrifying.--The New York Times Book Review Encyclopedic and compelling.--The New Yorker A New York Times Bestseller A Christian Science Monitor Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year Winner of the PEN Center USA Book Award Winner of the Ridenhour Book Prize Winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sunshine Award Winner of Before Columbus Foundations's American Book Award Subversives traces the FBI's secret involvement with three iconic figures who clashed at Berkeley during the 1960s: the ambitious neophyte politician Ronald Reagan, the fierce but fragile radical Mario Savio, and the liberal university president Clark Kerr. Through these converging narratives, the award-winning investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld tells a dramatic and disturbing story of FBI surveillance, illegal break-ins, infiltration, planted news stories, poison-pen letters, and secret detention lists all centered on the nation's leading public university. Rosenfeld vividly evokes the campus counterculture, as he reveals how the FBI's covert operations--led by Reagan's friend J. Edgar Hoover--helped ignite an era of protest, undermine the Democrats, and benefit Reagan personally and politically. The FBI spent more than $1 million trying to block the release of the secret files on which Subversives is based, but Rosenfeld compelled the bureau to reveal more than 300,000 pages, providing an extraordinary view of what the government was up to during a turning point in our nation. Part history, part biography, and part police procedural, Subversives reads like a true-crime mystery as it provides a fresh look at the legacy of the 1960s, sheds new light on one of America's most popular presidents, and tells a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked secrecy and power.

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9781250033383

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Reviews

<p> Subversives has a powerful story to tell about the vanity and stupidity of political leaders of any persuasion who squander public resources spying on personal enemies and obsessing over personal hang-ups--and the frightening weakness of the laws designed to restrain their authority. --Matt Taibbi, The New York Times Book Review <br> A well-written, dramatic narrative...many scoops--not just about Hoover and the student radicals but also about the University of California administration and, most surprisingly, about a future president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. -- The Wall Street Journal <br> Fiercely reported. -- New York Magazine, The Approval Matrix (Highbrow, Brilliant) <p> Armed with a panoply of interviews, court rulings, and freshly acquired F.B.I. document, Rosenfeld shows how J. Edgar Hoover unlawfully distributed confidential intelligence to undermine the nineteen-sixties protest movement in Berkeley, while brightening the political stars of friendly informants like Ronald Reagan. Rosenfeld's history, at once encyclopedic and compelling, follows a number of interwoven threads. -- The New Yorker, Briefly Noted <br> Crucial history. It's also a warning....Rosenfeld has an agenda in this book of patience and passion: setting straight a previously hidden--and consequential--record....Chilling. -- The Christian Science Monitor <br> Several books have dealt directly or tangentially with the Berkeley student revolt, but Seth Rosenfeld's Subversives presents a new and encompassing perspective, including a revisionist view of Ronald Reagan and a detailed picture of FBI corruption. The details of the story did not come easily. It took Rosenfeld, a former reporter for The Chronicle and the Examiner, 25 years and five Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to finally get all the material he requested from the FBI. The bureau fought him every inch of the way, spending more than $1 million of taxpayers' money in an effort to withhold p

<p> In case you've forgotten or are too young to know, the 1960s were the template for today's political divisiveness. In Subversives, Seth Rosenfeld chronicles how the abyss formed. His book is crucial history. It's also a warning . . . Profound thanks to Seth Rosenfeld for outing the truth and speaking truth to power. --Carlo Wolff, The Christian Science Monitor <br> Several books have dealt directly or tangentially with the Berkeley student revolt, but Seth Rosenfeld's Subversives presents a new and encompassing perspective, including a revisionist view of Ronald Reagan and a detailed picture of FBI corruption. The details of the story did not come easily. It took Rosenfeld, a former reporter for The Chronicle and the Examiner, 25 years and five Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to finally get all the material he requested from the FBI. The bureau fought him every inch of the weay, spending more than $1 million of taxpayers' money in an effort to withhold public records, until it finally had no choice . . . A well-paced and wide-ranging narrative . . . A deftly woven account. -- The San Francisco Chronicle <br> <p> Vivid and unsettling. -- The New Orleans Times-Picayune <br> Seth Rosenfeld fought the law and the people won; there can be little doubt of that . . . Subversives deepens our understanding of the political underpinnings of this period with the aid of many new details . . . Subversives will automatically become an essential reference for students of sixties unrest, of the career of Ronald Reagan, and of the FBI's long history of illegal shenanigans against American citizens. -- Barnes and Noble Review <br> Subversives is more than a documentary history--it has the insight that comes only with relentless reporting. This book is the classic history of our most powerful police agency and one of the most influential political figures of our time secretly joining forces. --Lowell Bergman, Investigative journalist for The

Author Information

Seth Rosenfeld was for many years an investigative reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, where his article about the free speech movement won seven national awards. He lives in San Francisco.

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