Democracy Betrayed

Praise for Democracy Betrayed

“Keller charts the growth of what he calls “Secure Democracy,” a security state with the outward trappings of a free society but one that, since 9/11, has been ever more intrusive and manipulative, especially in the misrepresentation of facts concerning the dangers of terrorism…Keller makes a spirited case for preferring untrammeled freedom to managed and monitored safety.”—Kirkus

“Many Americans believe that they are the beneficiaries, rather than the potential victims, of government surveillance. Those who have nothing to hide, goes the saying, have nothing to fear. In this important book, William Keller shows how naive this view is. The political philosopher Thomas Hobbes observed that the purpose of knowledge is power. And, having acquired vast knowledge about us, our government us in a position to exercise vast power over us.” —Benjamin Ginsberg, author of What Washington Gets Wrong and Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

“For many years now, William W. Keller has been one of the most talented and insightful writers on questions of security and liberty, beginning with his study in the 1980s on J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. He continues on with this marvelous new work on the rise of Big Brother in the United States. Keller writes smoothly, researches exhaustively, and cares deeply about both the factual and normative dimensions of public policy. The result in Democracy Betrayed is a book worth reading from cover–to–cover, for within its pages reside reliable information on the elusive topic of national security, along with thoughtful prescriptions on how to fight against America’s slide toward an ever intrusive surveillance society.” —Dr. Loch K. Johnson, author of A Season of Inquiry Revisited: The Church Committee Confronts America’s Spy Agencies