Rigged

America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference

By: David Shimer

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

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 2016 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.

What Americans should make of Russia's attack in 2016 is still hotly debated, even after the Mueller report and years of media coverage. Shimer shows that Putin's operation was, in fact, a continuation of an ongoing struggle, using familiar weapons radically enhanced by new technology. 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.

Casting aside partisanship and sensationalism, Rigged reveals new details about what Russia achieved in 2016, how the Obama administration responded, and why Putin has also been interfering covertly in elections across the globe in recent years, while American presidents have largely refrained from doing so. Shimer also makes disturbingly clear that this type of intrusion can be used to harm Democrats and Republicans alike. Russia's central aim is to undermine and disrupt our democracy, to the detriment of all Americans.

Understanding 2016 as one battle in a much longer war is essential to understanding 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.

A Total Eye Opener!

I always knew Putin was behind Trump's becoming POTUS, but it felt great to be validated. However, I had no idea the CIA covertly interfered to preserve Democracies in foreign countries... that was an eye opener for me! Very interesting and important, historical lessons to be learned and applied to today's world!

Rigged

great look at how democracies and authoritarianism governments have interacted over the past 100 years. learned a lot that I didn't know before and very good look into the years that come. at times it feels as though the writer is anti-Trump but it is hard to write a book about the 2016 election and covert interference and not express those views.

Did not mention Fox "News" once

I listened to this book due to Hillary Clinton's recommendation on Twitter. I was appalled, disgusted and depressed to learn the extent to which the US used to interfere in other countries' elections (the book claims we have stopped; I'm skeptical). I would like to hear President Obama's opinion of the book, as he does not come off very well in it. The list at the end, of the 10 things we need to do as a nation to combat foreign election interference, is very good but I was disappointed that reinstating the Fairness Doctrine was not one of them, nor was there any plan for dealing with the malign effects of Fox "News." In fact Fox "News" was not mentioned at all, and so I knocked off a star for that. I have lost my parents and siblings to that propaganda channel, and it is a huge influence on them. None of them are on social media, which the book focuses on and perhaps rightly so, but to not even mention this mainstream source of Russian/Trumpian gaslighting is a glaring omission.

Slow and Painful

I know the difference between academic and popular history writing. I wasn’t expecting the former in this book, but I was expecting something pitched a little higher than a collegiate education. If you’ve never read a book about US foreign policy history, please don’t be dissuaded by this review. If you are more familiar with it, or have an education in history at the undergraduate level (or, especially, above), don’t waste your time.

The plodding quality of the work is matched to perfection by the narrator, who sounds like a tired tween on Valium. He’s simply not endurable at anything less than 1.5x speed.