cover image The Snowden Reader

The Snowden Reader

Edited by David P. Fidler. Indiana Univ., $30 (374p) ISBN 978-0-253-01737-6

When National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden pulled back the curtain on an array of secret U.S. domestic and international spying programs in June 2013, he %E2%80%9Cunleashed, as he hoped, a worldwide debate about state surveillance in the context of technological advances.%E2%80%9D His disclosures to journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras have triggered his own exile to Russia, while his revelations continue to reverberate from the highest levels of government to the most vigilant privacy activists and legal scholars. Indiana University law professor Fidler has taken a vital early step with this collection of essays, analyses, and annotated primary documents, which sheds light on the full implications of Snowden's disclosures, though Fidler is quick to point out that %E2%80%9Cmore than a year into the journey into this secret world... we do not have clarity about what it all means.%E2%80%9D Essays by Fidler and others variously touch on the %E2%80%9Cimaginary%E2%80%9D balance of security and liberty, American foreign policy, and civil disobedience, scratching the surface of numerous complex issues in an accessible manner. The primary documents, some written in stultifying legalese and the grim obfuscation of government bureaucracy, are easier to evaluate and critique after the introductory essays, without being any less troubling in what they suggest about the Orwellian proportions of the modern-day U.S. surveillance apparatus and the status of privacy in the digital age. (May)