Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life

(Paperback)

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Award winning journalist Ted Gup exposes how and why our most important institutions increasingly keep secrets from the very people they are supposed to serve.Drawing on his decades as an investigative reporter, Ted Gup argues that a preoccupation with secrets has undermined the very values--security, patriotism, and privacy--in whose name secrecy is so often invoked. He explores the blatant exploitation of privacy and confidentiality in academia, business, and the courts, and concludes that in case after case, these principles have been twisted to allow the emergence of a shadow system of justice, unaccountable to the public. Nation of Secrets not only sounds the alarm to warn against an unethical way of life, but calls for the preservation of our democracy as we know it.

Reviews

A frontal attack on secrecy. . . . It should be the cornerstone of a concerted effort to build a defense against the encroachment on the public's right to know. The Chicago Tribune"Makes clear the danger of out-of-control secrecy."The Plain Dealer"It burns with the moral ardor that arises from a sense of crisis." Bloomberg News"An eye-opening and very important book. . . . I learned something from each chapter." James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly

Author Bio

Ted Gup is a legendary investigative reporter who worked under Bob Woodward at the Washington Post, and later at Time. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including the the George Polk Award and the Worth Bingham Prize. The author of The Book of Honor, Gup is a professor of journalism at Case Western Reserve University.