The Declassification Engine

What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets

By: Matthew Connelly

Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE • Every day, thousands of new secrets are created by the United States government. What is all this secrecy really for? And whom does it benefit?

“A brilliant, deeply unsettling look at the history and inner workings of ‘the dark state'.... At a time when federal agencies are increasingly classifying or destroying documents with historical significance, this book could not be more important.”—Eric Schlosser, New York Times best-selling author of Command and Control

Before World War II, transparent government was a proud tradition in the United States. In all but the most serious of circumstances, classification, covert operations, and spying were considered deeply un-American. But after the war, the power to decide what could be kept secret proved too tempting to give up. Since then, we have radically departed from that open tradition, allowing intelligence agencies, black sites, and classified laboratories to grow unchecked. Officials insist that only secrecy can keep us safe, but its true costs have gone unacknowledged for too long.

Using the latest techniques in data science, historian Matthew Connelly analyzes a vast trove of state secrets to unearth not only what the government really did not want us to know but also why they didn’t want us to know it. Culling this research and carefully examining a series of pivotal moments in recent history, from Pearl Harbor to drone warfare, Connelly sheds light on the drivers of state secrecy—especially incompetence and criminality—and how rampant overclassification makes it impossible to protect truly vital information.

What results is an astonishing study of power: of the greed it enables, of the negligence it protects, and of what we lose as citizens when our leaders cannot be held to account. A crucial examination of the self-defeating nature of secrecy and the dire state of our nation’s archives, The Declassification Engine is a powerful reminder of the importance of preserving the past so that we may secure our future.

©2023 Matthew Connelly (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

“It may be the most presciently timed book ever written. . . . It's the love story between America and its secrets.”—Jon Stewart

“Connelly has defined an existential crisis: the suppression of American history. . . . The Declassification Engine makes the case that the culture of secrecy diminishes democracy. And it has now become a culture of destruction as well.”—Tim Weiner, The New York Times Book Review

“Fascinating and urgent. . . . If you believe in the founding principles of the American form of government, then the stakes could scarcely be higher.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, Foreign Affairs

eye opener yet long winded

It doesn't give out as many secrets as the title might suggest. I would give it a listen though. There are nuggets of conversation starters and it fills in the gaps of information History Class glossed over. In fact, if my 5th grade teacher were still alive today, I would insist she read it and apologize for calling me out on bombings done in Cambodia during the early 70's. Also, the St. Louis Archives fire in 1973 affected my father-in-law. His records were lost and he had difficulty getting assistance at a VA because of it.
This book was a bit long winded, but I would listen to it again.

Great read, unbiased view on the problem of over-classification

Great read, Matthew Connelly has again outdone himself with a book that gives one a new view on the past, present, and future of our nation’s secrets.

Informative and Deeply Disturbing

I bought the book after listening to a Jon Stewart podcast and was not disappointed.
We may live in a democracy but the government is a living Hydra with departments and leaders that manipulate and direct public policy with impunity. Government officials have an impact on public policy long after they are out of office or retire and we have limited knowledge of what and why they did what they did when they did it.
This book offers a deep dive into what we don't know and are only beginning to discover.
The AI future may not bode well for modern democracy in that transparency may reveal TMI.

Great book and well read.

In our world of constant left-right rancor, this book addresses some big problems that neither side wants to fix. Its a good blend of people and modern tech with historical contexts.

Interesting stuff, but much longer than necessary.

I learned some interesting things and the author makes some good points and observations. But the book was very repetitive, making the same points and observations over and over, while jumping around throughout history. I really didn't want to stop listening, out of fear I'd miss a salient point, but I couldn't wait for it to end.

Information in plain site…

Author tried to remain unbiased. Overall wonderful book; highly recommended! We need to embrace his findings.

Good Idea…Needs more science

Narrator is good, story’s detailed…data science is lacking. There should be a pdf and more of a breakdown of how the team worked on finding potential anomalies.

Opinion masquerading as research

The narrator is great.
The material is bad.
Less than 10% of the book has anything to do with authors actual research findings. The rest is cherry picked anecdotes (available from many other sources) of failures of classification, mixed in with the author’s opinions on what the government would be better off spending time and money on.
The author means well, but their writing is so chocked with biased rhetoric that it makes it seem as if they are using their grant $ to pursue an agenda vs identify actual problems and solutions.
Hard to take it seriously.