In Deep
The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"
Published on 26. May 2020
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-1-324-00354-0 (ISBN)
Description
Three-quarters of Americans believe that a group of unelected government and military officials secretly manipulate or direct policy in the United States, and President Trump blames the "deep state" for his impeachment. David Rohde explores the "deep state" and asks whether it really exists.
To conservatives, the "deep state" is a government bureaucracy that encroaches on the rights of Americans. Liberals fear a cabal of generals and defence contractors who they believe push the country into wars. Modern American presidents have engaged in power struggles with Congress, the CIA and the FBI. CIA and FBI directors suspect White House aides and members of Congress of leaking secrets. Citizens increasingly distrust the politicians, unelected officials and journalists who they believe set the country's political agenda. Now, in this time of heightened uncertainty, American democracy faces its biggest crisis of legitimacy in a half century.
In Deep examines the CIA and FBI scandals of the past fifty years. It then investigates the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era. While Donald Trump says he is the victim of the "deep state", Democrats accuse the president and his allies of running a de facto "deep state" of their own. Now more urgently than ever, the debate over the "deep state" raises questions about the future of American democracy.
To conservatives, the "deep state" is a government bureaucracy that encroaches on the rights of Americans. Liberals fear a cabal of generals and defence contractors who they believe push the country into wars. Modern American presidents have engaged in power struggles with Congress, the CIA and the FBI. CIA and FBI directors suspect White House aides and members of Congress of leaking secrets. Citizens increasingly distrust the politicians, unelected officials and journalists who they believe set the country's political agenda. Now, in this time of heightened uncertainty, American democracy faces its biggest crisis of legitimacy in a half century.
In Deep examines the CIA and FBI scandals of the past fifty years. It then investigates the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era. While Donald Trump says he is the victim of the "deep state", Democrats accuse the president and his allies of running a de facto "deep state" of their own. Now more urgently than ever, the debate over the "deep state" raises questions about the future of American democracy.
Reviews / Votes
"Pulitzer-winner David Rohde dismisses the Deep State theory-but also shows government does pursue entrenched interests... Under the subtitle "The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth About America's 'Deep State'", the two-time Pulitzer-winner rejects the nomenclature of conspiracy theorists." -- The Guardian "...when the author gets to Trump... the two disparate threads of his narrative come neatly together. Here Rohde skilfully makes clear that it is precisely by pedalling the myth of the Deep State that the President has been able to undermine efforts at oversight." -- Lawrence Douglas - TLS "... a tour of the decades-long effort to square that most unsquareable of democratic challenges: how to run clandestine intelligence and security agencies in a system that is ostensibly accountable to the people." -- Peter Spiegel - Financial Times "David Rohde's In Deep demolished the theory of the "deep state"." -- 2020 in US politics books - The Guardian "In Deepis a compassionate critique of the simmering grievance that has now found its way to the White House, where it threatens to upend the tenets of American democracy: truth, justice, and, above all, the rule of law. Reported in stunning and tenacious detail, In Deep is a wholly satisfying read-and a necessary one for anyone wanting to understand the forces at play in our government today." -- Andrea Bernstein, Peabody Award-winning co-host of the WNYC/ProPublica podcast Trump, Inc. and author of American Oligarchs . "David Rohde has written a remarkable book that is both urgent reporting and sweeping history. He brings the same vitality and precision that animated his storied reporting on war zones to this portrait of the decades-long battle over the powers of the intelligence community, and the erosion-under recent administrations of both parties-of rules put in place to protect American citizens' rights. And he brings fresh insight to the phrase 'deep state,' and the role it may play in the future of American politics." -- Ronan Farrow, author of Catch and KillMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
8 pages of photographs
Dimensions
Height: 242 mm
Width: 166 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
659 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-00354-0 (9781324003540)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2020
W. W. Norton & Company
€16.49
Available for download
Person
David Rohde is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The author of In Deep and three other books, he is the national security editor and law editor at NBC News, a former executive editor of The New Yorker website, and a former New York Times, Reuters, and Christian Science Monitor reporter. He lives in New York.