Active Measures

The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare

By: Thomas Rid

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Audio

Everyone should listen to this book

This book should be a most read for anyone who wants to understand the world

Amazing

Loved it sucks good man its cool bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

Great insight into what’s behind the memes

Highly recommend this book!
We’re being led around by the nose. Monitoring of Merkel was an active measure. So much of what’s in the news is all out false, or massaged into appearing worse.

Grounding book for COVID 19 Media

Ride's work should dampen the concerns of "the new and never seen." He shows humans have been exploiting information for longer than the 21st century. COVID, like AIDS, is proving valuable for attacking cohesion. I enjoyed his connection of active measures to Foucot and post modernism. Spy thriller intensity combined with a philosophical treatise nuance--a fun informative read.

Required Reading

This information needs to be given to every American citizen, largely the point being that truth is relative today because people only seek what they want to believe. Everyone NEEDS to read this. Make the purchase and invest the time, you need to do it.

Very good audio & info

Valuable and worthwhile listen. Information and context to help understand what is happening to the US. The MAGA right appears to be a further development and application of these methods and lessons.

Enjoyable but only after it grows on you.

Very detailed account of disinformation. Almost too much detail at times, but that seems to be the norm for such material. Overall great information and substance.

Good information

Very interesting book with good information to know and the read is quick nice and fitting for the book.

Perfection

A Masterful work. Author knows his topic, and he m takes it to the 21st century.

timely

Are Asmerican politics confusing these days? Read this before you take in the rest of the noise.