The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America’s Top Secrets

Columbia University historian Connelly (Fatal Misconception) forcefully critiques the “exponential growth in government secrecy” since WWII. Drawing on his work at the History Lab, which uses advanced data mining techniques to “sift and sort through” millions of declassified documents for insights into “what the government did not want us to know, and why they did not want us to know it,” Connelly argues that the “relentless” and “massive” accumulation of secret information has “served the interests of people who wanted to avoid democratic accountability.” Examining declassified documents and metadata related to nuclear weapons, cryptography, UFO sightings, battle plans, the 1954 Guatemala coup (long believed to have been coordinated by the Eisenhower administration at the behest of the United Fruit Company), and more, Connelly contends that the rise of state secrets has undermined government efficiency, buttressed the military-industrial complex, and fostered conspiracy thinking. He also contends that the more information is classified, the harder it is to track and protect, making it vulnerable to exploitation, and highlights arbitrary and ineffective policies, including the classification of material after it’s already entered the public domain. Though the data analysis and history lessons can be dense, Connelly enlivens the narrative with sharp character sketches and acerbic wit. It’s an impassioned and well-informed wake-up call. (Feb.)