The Declassification Engine: What History Reveals About America's Top Secrets
by Matthew Connelly
View on GoodreadsThe United States was a republic with few formal secrets for roughly its first 150 years. Now it holds more than 28 million cubic feet of secret paper files, and Connelly argues the system hides mistakes and dodges accountability as often as it keeps you safe.
Core ideas
- Secrecy came late: Systematic classification took hold around 1931 and grew with World War II, and every administration since has expanded it despite transparency pledges.
- A failing archive: Declassification officials keep records closed, archives are underfunded and records get destroyed because disposal is cheaper, so historians skew toward pre-1970s material.
- Machines on the record: His Declassification Engine project used machine learning to predict redacted content, and the government pushed back, even threatening legal action.
Published2023
Pages540
ISBN9781101871577
ReadMay 2023
