Active Measures
The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
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Active Measures
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Narrateur(s):
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Derek Perkins
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Auteur(s):
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Thomas Rid
À propos de cet audio
This revelatory and dramatic history of disinformation traces the rise of secret organized deception operations from the interwar period to contemporary internet troll farms
We live in the age of disinformation - of organized deception. Spy agencies pour vast resources into hacking, leaking, and forging data, often with the goal of weakening the very foundation of liberal democracy: trust in facts. Thomas Rid, a renowned expert on technology and national security, was one of the first to sound the alarm. Even before the 2016 election, he warned that Russian military intelligence was "carefully planning and timing a high-stakes political campaign" to disrupt the democratic process. But as crafty as such so-called active measures have become, they are not new.
The story of modern disinformation begins with the clash between communism and capitalism after the Russian Revolution, which would come to define the Cold War. In Active Measures, Rid reveals startling intelligence and security secrets from materials written in more than 10 languages across several nations, and from interviews with current and former operatives. He exposes the disturbing yet colorful history of professional, organized lying, revealing for the first time some of the century's most significant operations - many of them nearly beyond belief. A White Russian ploy backfires and brings down a New York police commissioner; a KGB-engineered, anti-Semitic hate campaign creeps back across the Berlin Wall; the CIA backs a fake publishing empire, run by a former Wehrmacht U-boat commander that produces Germany’s best jazz magazine. Rid tracks the rise of leaking, and shows how spies began to exploit emerging internet culture many years before WikiLeaks. Finally, he sheds new light on the 2016 election, especially the role of the infamous "troll farm" in St. Petersburg as well as a much more harmful attack that unfolded in the shadows.
Active Measures takes the listener on a guided tour deep into a vast hall of mirrors old and new, pointing to a future of engineered polarization, more active and less measured - but also offering the tools to cut through the game of deception.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
©2020 Thomas Rid (P)2020 Macmillan AudioCe que les auditeurs disent de Active Measures
Moyenne des évaluations de clientsÉvaluations – Cliquez sur les onglets pour changer la source des évaluations.
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Au global4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Histoire5 out of 5 stars
- Count Erklock
- 2020-10-21
Excellent and engaging book, but one-sided
In this ambitious and interesting account, Thomas Rid retraces the history of how systematic disinformation has been used by intelligence services for political gain, from the onset of 20th century to the alleged hacking of the 2016 American elections by "Russian hackers". Of course, the 20th century did not invent disinformation, deception and mass manipulation, but it propelled them to levels of efficiency never imagined before, thanks to an array of new communication technologies and people (radio, magazines, newspaper, journalists). High-level covert disinformation tactics carried out by intelligence services are referred to as "active measures". The absolutely staggering levels of disinformation we're witnessing today have had their foundations laid down more than a century ago.
I found this book this book both instructive and important, mostly because it focused on "real fake events", rather than propaganda theory of something of the kind. It will bring you up-to-date on the levels of sophistication we have achieved in our ability to lie to and to manipulate one another through disinformation.
My only criticism is that the author's lens is almost exclusively focused on the former Soviet Union and East German Republic, and current-day Russia. I'm fairly confident that the U.S and other Western countries were no innocent bystanders in the race for weapons of mass disinformation. I understand that the book is already 14 hours long, but it would have gained in credibility with a more balanced account. If you describe a boxing match, please let me know what both boxers are doing, not just one. Else, well, the book is at risk of choking on its own food (being considered as an "active measure")?
Despite its "focus", I strongly recommend it. It's a detailed and powerful overview of the history of "active measures". It may change the way you look at information and news. It has certainly made me more cautious, and looking for divergent points of view to get "the big picture". If however you feel depressed about the current state of the political discourse in the West, and by the orgy of disinformation that can be found on the net, then this book won't help. Take the blue pill and forget about it.
As the color of the book's cover page shows, it's a red pill: take it and see how deep our current rabbit hole goes.
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Au global4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Histoire5 out of 5 stars
- AxWRR53
- 2022-05-07
Neat history
Some remarkable stories about misinformation directed at the public and governments — a reminder of how we have to re-interpret the past as previously secret information is revealed, and how many events which we observe have causes that we are ignorant about.
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Au global1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Histoire1 out of 5 stars
- A humble student
- 2024-01-05
Biased and partial analysis
Boy O Boy!! What a new twist on an old trick. You had fooled me completely. The presentation reminded me of a certain uncle Kubark, an honest and truthful saint of a guy. He never cheated in any card game but won almost all of them. So I was fooled. But unfortunately for you, Teller here knew of a certain Uncle George Orwell whose Animal Farm he once visited. Teller whispered into my ear, "Four legs good, two legs bad". He thinks that you know the true meaning. So no trophy for you. Penn and Teller (Faux).
P.S: The book should have a negative price.
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