Rigged
America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference
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4.8 • 10 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The definitive history of the covert struggle between Russia and America to influence elections, why the threat to American democracy is greater than ever, and what we can do about it. This is "the first book to put the story of Russian interference into a broader context.... Extraordinary and gripping" (The New York Times Book Review).
Russia's interference in the 2016 elections marked only the latest chapter of a hidden and revelatory history. In Rigged, David Shimer tells the sweeping story of covert electoral interference past and present. He exposes decades of secret operations—by the KGB, the CIA, and Vladimir Putin's Russia—to shape electoral outcomes, melding deep historical research with groundbreaking interviews with more than 130 key players, from leading officials in both the Trump and Obama administrations to CIA and NSA directors to a former KGB general. Throughout history and in 2016, both Russian and American operations achieved their greatest success by influencing the way voters think, rather than tampering with actual vote tallies.
Understanding 2016 as one battle in a much longer war is essential to comprehending the critical threat currently posed to America's electoral sovereignty and how to defend against it. Illuminating how the lessons of the past can be used to protect our democracy in the future, Rigged is an essential book for readers of every political persuasion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Shimer debuts with a provocative and well-sourced study tracking Russian and U.S. efforts to influence foreign elections from the early 20th century to the present day. Though the history of covert electoral interference began with Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin's efforts to spread communism in the wake of WWI, Shimer writes, both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. "targeted elections aggressively and frequently" during the Cold War. His examples include CIA efforts to keep left-wing candidates out of office in Italy and Chile, and the KGB's role in ensuring that West German chancellor Willy Brandt survived a 1972 no-confidence vote. After the Soviet Union's collapse, Shimer claims, America stopped its influence campaigns "in all but the most exceptional of circumstances." Russia, however, has escalated its electoral meddling in the internet age, according to Shimer, and Vladimir Putin's "digital warriors" waged covert campaigns in 2016 to unseat Montenegro's pro-NATO leader, put Donald Trump in the White House, and influence the Brexit referendum. Though his prose style is more scholarly than scintillating, Shimer makes excellent use of archival research and interviews with U.S. government insiders and intelligence experts. This incisive treatise lays bare the monumental task of countering foreign interference in the 2020 election.
Customer Reviews
This book should be mandatory.
History classes or social classes in every high school should make this book mandatory reading. It takes a reason and well-founded view of the world and gives us the knowledge needed to combat the forces that challenge our democracy.
According to NYT reads like a spy thriller and is essential reading! Fascinating and a page turner.
Thorough, complete, first hand accounts from many sources. You won’t be able to put it down. See reviews in NYT, Washington post, NPR etc...
An Astonishing Debut That Reads Like a Spy Thriller
Few works of history are transformative - this book is. Shimer takes you into the Situation Room with Obama's team, and you feel as if you were sitting at the table listening to the debate about Russian interference in 2016. He astutely describes (through the lens of history) how such interference continued the long arc of electoral interference that began with Stalin over a century ago. This work is a clarion call to all who value democracy and free elections. It is a warning of what could happen in 2020, and just by documenting this history, Shimer gives us the weapons needed to protect our elections. This could be one of the most important books of the decade.