Declassification Engine

The first book-length study to come out of History Lab, The Declassification Engine combines data science and history to uncover how government officials use secrecy to hoard power and evade democratic accountability.

It wasn’t always like this. The Declassification Engine starts with the American Revolution, when the Founders started a proud tradition of transparent government. In all but the most serious of circumstances, classification, covert operations, and spying were considered deeply unamerican. But after World War II, 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 secret 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, The Declassification Engine analyzes a vast trove of state secrets to unearth not only what the government really does not want us to know, but why. Culling this research and carefully studying a series of pivotal moments in recent history from Pearl Harbor to drone warfare, it sheds light on the drivers of state secrecy—especially incompetence and criminality—and how the relentless accumulation of secrets makes it impossible to protect truly vital information.

The Declassification Engine is ultimately a study of power: of the greed that it enables, of the negligence that it protects, and of what we lose as citizens when our leaders cannot be held to account.

Author's Note: The print and ebook editions of The Declassification Engine have abbreviated endnotes. For a more complete version, including links to documents referenced in the text, click here. If you notice any issues, such as links that no longer work, please contact us.