The Dark Side

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR • A sweeping account of the fateful decisions, flawed intelligence, and destructive ideologies that led to America’s post–9/11 forever wars

“Deeply troubling, but splendidly executed . . . Mayer does invaluable work locking these reports into a coherent narrative framework and sketching in vital connective details and insights. . . . Superb.”—Los Angeles Times

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: The Washington Post, The Economist, Salon, Slate, The Plain Dealer

WINNER: J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, Goldsmith Book Prize, Edward Weintal Prize, Ridenhour Prize, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

The Dark Side is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of the disastrous missteps the United States made in the pursuit of terrorists around the world—decisions that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda.

In spellbinding detail, Jane Mayer reveals how key players, namely Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, exploited the crisis to further a long-held agenda to enhance presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment. Drawing on real, specific cases set against the larger drama unfolding in Washington, Mayer examines the intelligence gained—or not—and the extraordinary price paid. U.S.-held prisoners, some of them completely innocent, were subjected to brutal treatment, while coercive interrogations often produced false or unreliable information with devastating results.

A gripping investigation of power, fear, secrecy, and the consequences of abandoning fundamental principles, The Dark Side chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history.