Reviews
"Patrick Eddington offers a historical page-turner that traces the deep roots of government surveillance in American life. He shows how the early twentieth century's cauldron of anarchism and violence—including a presidential assassination, terrorism, and bombings—gave birth to a fear-based mentality to justify political surveillance. From the prosecution of Americans making 'disloyal utterances' in the Wilson era, to the interference of the FBI in the 1924 presidential election, to the bureau's early persecution of Martin Luther King Jr., Eddington explains how the surveillance state grew and why it lives on today."—Bob Goodlatte, former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, senior policy advisor to the Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability
"The Triumph of Fear is a captivating narrative that explores the history and depth of government surveillance and repression and sharply elucidates the damage done to individuals, civil society, and our democracy. Eddington's prose is elegant and engaging, his research exhaustive, and his analysis spot-on. It's critical reading for anyone who cares about our democracy and their own constitutional rights."—Sue Udry, executive director, Defending Rights and Dissent
"Laying bare 75 years of abuses of power, The Triumph of Fear is a precursor and cautionary tale foreshadowing the rampant surveillance of contemporary presidential administrations and underscoring the sordid history of politicians wantonly ignoring the US Constitution, violating their oaths of office, and eroding the very foundations of the country they purport to serve."—Sascha Meinrath, Palmer Chair in Telecommunications, Penn State University
"The Triumph of Fear challenges our concept of the United States of America as the land of the free and the home of the brave. His deep research and focus on primary sources reveal that for more than a hundred years, unreasonable fears drove presidents of both parties to unleash secret surveillance operations by an assortment of law enforcement, military, and intelligence agencies against their political opponents, government dissidents, journalists, and anyone they just didn't like—too often with the cooperation of Congress and the courts. This history is essential to understanding the nature of domestic surveillance operations today, and the need to tightly control them."—Mike German, former FBI special agent, author of Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy
"The Triumph of Fear is simultaneously enriching and anxiety inducing, fascinating and terrifying. Eddington tells well—with authority, insight, passion, and lived experience—a story as relevant and pressing now as it ever has been, and brings the rigor and urgency needed to get across just how deeply Americans should care about how the state uses its power to see as a means to oppress. Much of what I learned from the book it would be more comfortable not to know, but Eddington makes a strong case that knowing these uncomfortable truths about our government's abuse of surveillance in the service of political repression is necessary to prevent from happening, again and again, the damaging activities he so thoroughly chronicles. Eddington's book is a triumph that, one hopes, will play an important role in undoing that of its title."—Aaron Ross Powell, senior director of programs, Institute for Humane Studies and founder, ReImagining Liberty
"If you want to know how we got here, Triumph of Fear is an entertaining read and an essential one....[that] casts a mirror on the current state of surveillance and speech."—Project for Privacy and Surveillance Accountability
"Mr. Eddington's book provides a rich vein of information for researchers, investigators, and journalists working to understand the federal government's secret surveillance and political repression capabilities."—The Washington Times
"Eddington crafts a valuable history of the rise and spread of what he terms the American surveillance state. The book is exhaustively researched and footnoted and draws in part on a massive archive of newly declassified federal records."—Foreign Affairs
"Triumph of Fear offers an encyclopedic yet very readable account of domestic surveillance in the United States from the late 19th century through the Eisenhower administration....Even dedicated students of surveillance will find new details in this work, and those new to the study of domestic surveillance will find much shocking."—CHOICE connect
"The Triumph of Fear is extraordinary in its scale and in its use of primary as well as secondary literature to illuminate its subject. And Eddington is particularly effective in his choice of stories to highlight and to connect to the book's larger theme of fear-based governing and politics."—Lawfare
