Books About Espionage & Counter Insurgency
This is a sort of catch-all section for books about the dirty deeds performed by western intelligence agencies and federal police departments on behalf of rich people, corporations and the Pig Empire establishment – including, but not limited to: espionage, mass surveillance, assassinations, counter-insurgency operations, the disruption of domestic dissident movements, drug smuggling, as well as covert (and not so covert) attempts to overthrow left wing governments that oppose American imperialism, the US petrodollar and/or the western neoliberal economic consensus.
Please note that for reasons of physical shelving space in my house, this page now includes both books about domestic surveillance as part of the Cold War or the War on Terror, and police actions to suppress left wing and equality movements in the United States or larger Pig Empire. My focus here will however remain the repressive, covert, and often violent sort of deeds the state undertakes against activists and dissidents; whether they be domestic or foreign.
Readers who’d like to explore the politics and activities of those movements (such as the Black Panther Party, AIM, labor unions, Civil Rights leaders and the anti-war movement) are still encouraged to check out our Books About Injustice & Anti-colonialism or Marxism, Anarchism & Liberation Ideology Books, as appropriate.
Paul Avrich – Review – Bonus
Vincent Bevins – Review – Review – Bonus
COINTELPRO: The FBI’s Secret War on Political Freedom
Nelson Blackstock – COINTELPRO Wiki – Blurb
Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Secret Wars against the BPP & the AIM
Ward Churchill, Jim Vander Wall – Wiki – Bonus
The COINTEPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent
Ward Churchill, Jim Vander Wall – Review – Bonus
Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press
Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair – Review – Blurb
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden
Steve Coll – Review – Bonus
There’s Something Happening Here
David Cunningham – Review – Bonus
The History of the Haymarket Affair
Henry David – Review (Sorta) – Haymarket Wiki – Bonus – Bonus
The Plots Against the President
Sally Denton – Review – Bonus – Bonus
JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State
Barton Gellman – Review – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
James Green – Review – Review – Review – Bonus – Bonus
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
Glenn Greenwald – Review – Caveat Emptor (PoS Author)
The Assassination of Fred Hampton
Jeffrey Haas – Review – Review – Bonus – Bonus – PDF
The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
Stephen Kinzer – Review – Review – Bonus – Bonus
Heavy Radicals – The FBI’s Secret War on America’s Maoists
Aaron Leonard, Conor Gallagher – Review – Review – Bonus
Surveillance Valley: The Rise of the Military-Digital Complex
Yasha Levine – Review – CYR Blog – Bonus – Bonus
Secrets: the CIA’s War at Home
Angus Mackenzie – Review – Blurb – Bonus
The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence
V Marchetti, J.D. Marks – Review – Caveat Emptor (PoS Author)
Peter Matthiessen – Review – Blurb – PDF
The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
Alfred W. McCoy – Review – Review – Blurb – Bonus
The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI
Betty Medsger – Review – Review – Bonus – Bonus
Victor Navasky – Review – Review – Blurb – Bonus
An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King
William F. Pepper – Review – Blurb – Blurb – Bonus
Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege
Will Potter – Review – Blurb – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals 1903-1933
State of War: The Secret History Of The CIA And The Bush Administration
James Risen – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power
Seth Rosenfeld – Review – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
Power Wars: The Relentless Rise of Presidential Authority and Secrecy
Charlie Savage – Review – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
It Did Happen Here: Recollections of Political Repression in America
Bud Schultz, Ruth Schultz – Blurb
Dallas ’63: The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House
Peter Dale Scott – Blurb – Bonus – PDF
Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
Tim Shorrock – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus – Bonus – Bonus
Edward Snowden – Review – Review – CYR Essay – Bonus – Bonus
David Talbot – Review – Review – Review – Bonus – Bonus
From Counterculture to Cyberculture
Fred Turner – Review – Blurb – Bonus – Bonus
The Manufacture of Consent: J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI
Stephen M. Underhill – Review – Bonus – Bonus
Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Cocaine Explosion
Gary Webb – Review – Background – Bonus – Bonus – Bonus
Tim Weiner – Review – Review – Review – Bonus – Bonus
Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA
Tim Weiner – Review – Review – CYR Essay – Blurb – Bonus
Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency
Kristian Williams, Will Munger, Lara Messersmith-Glavin – Review – Bonus
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-87
Bob Woodward – Review – Review
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