The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI

The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America

James Bamford · 395 pages

James Bamford has been the preeminent expert on the National Security Agency since his reporting revealed the agency's existence in the 1980s. Now Bamford describes the transformation of the NSA since 9/11, as the agency increasingly turns its high-tech ears on the American public.The Shadow Factory reconstructs how the NSA missed a chance to thwart the 9/11 hijackers and details how this mistake

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

Bradley K. Martin · 888 pages

"Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea's ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Lifting Pyongyang's curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book takes readers inside a society that to a Westerner may appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on grains and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctr

The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man

Luke Harding · 346 pages

"IT BEGAN WITH A TANTALIZING, ANONYMOUS EMAIL: "I AM A SENIOR MEMBER OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY." What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man. Edward Snowden was a 29-year-old computer genius working for the National Security Agency when he shocked the world by exposing the near-universal mass surveillance programs of the United States

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Barbara Demick · 314 pages

A remarkable view into North Korea, as seen through the lives of six ordinary citizens Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years--a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape most of us have nev

The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat

Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein · 260 pages

The Looming Tower

Lawrence Wright · 550 pages

Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa

Antjie Krog · 403 pages

"Ever since Nelson Mandela dramatically walked out of prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years behind bars, South Africa has been undergoing a radical transformation. In one of the most miraculous events of the century, the oppressive system of apartheid was dismantled. But how could this country - one of spectacular beauty and promise - come to terms with its ugly past? How could its people, whom

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

Steve Coll · 728 pages

An account of the CIA's involvement in the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and gave rise to bin Laden's al Qaeda. For nearly the past quarter century, while most Americans were unaware, Afghanistan has been the playing field for intense covert operations by U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies-invisible wars which sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks and which pro

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

David Talbot · 704 pages

"An explosive, headline-making portrait of Allen Dulles, the man who transformed the CIA into the most powerful and secretive colossus in Washington, from the founder of Salon.com and author of the New York Times bestseller Brothers. America's greatest untold story: the United States' rise to world dominance under the guile of Allen Welsh Dulles, the longest-serving director of the CIA. Drawing on

@War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex

Shane Harris · 288 pages

The United States military now views cyberspace as the "fifth domain" of warfare, alongside land, air, sea, and space. The Pentagon, the National Security Agency, and the CIA field teams of hackers who launch cyber strikes against enemy targets--and amass staggering quantities of personal information on all of us. These same virtual warriors, along with a growing band of private-sector counterpart

One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein

Whitney Alyse Webb · 544 pages

Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State

Dana Priest, William M. Arkin · 320 pages

Describes the enormous, top-secret, invisible universe created by the government after 9/11 and describes why the system in place to keep us safe may actually be putting us in greater danger.

Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone

Scott Shane · 400 pages

A dramatic account of the cat-and-mouse game between the Obama administration and most-wanted terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki traces the President's shifting campaigns and the evolution of the robotic technology that ended Awlaki's life.

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters

James W. Douglass · 514 pages

In this fascinating and disturbing book James Douglass presents a compelling account of why President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and why the unmasking of this truth remains crucial for the future of our country and the world. Drawing on a vast field of investigation, including many sources available only in recent years, Douglass lays out a sequence of steps by JFK that transformed him, o

North Korea Undercover: Inside the World's Most Secret State

John Sweeney · 338 pages

"North Korea is like no other tyranny on earth. Its citizens are told their home is the greatest nation in the world, and big brother is always watching: it is Orwell's 1984 made reality. Award-winning BBC journalist John Sweeney is one of the few foreign journalists to have witnessed the devastating reality of life in the controversial and isolated nation of North Korea, having entered the countr

Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

Will Potter · 256 pages

Examines the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to target and prosecute environmentalists and animal rights activists, discussing people and events associated with radical activism, and describing political, legal, and public relations strategies that attach nonviolent acts of civil disobedience with "eco-terrorist" labels.

Spies Against Armageddon

Dan Raviv, Yossi Melman

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

Masha Gessen · 333 pages

This is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to her own people and to the world. Handpicked by the "family" surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oliga

A Secret History of the IRA: Gerry Adams and the Thirty Year War

Ed Moloney · 608 pages

Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

Anna Funder

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China

Philip P. Pan · 398 pages

A vivid chronicle of the world's most successful authoritarian state. Pan, who reported from China for seven years, eluded the police and succeeded in going where few Western journalists have dared. From the rusting factories in the industrial northeast to a tabloid newsroom in the booming south, from a small-town courtroom to the plush offices of the nation's wealthiest tycoons, he takes us insid

The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia

David E. Hoffman · 576 pages

"In all of Moscow, few vantage points are as spectacular as Sparrow Hill, a forested, sloping rise perched above the Moscow River where it makes a lazy turn toward the Kremlin. One evening in September 1994, a group of wealthy Russian businessmen gathered in secret at a villa at the crest of the hill, overlooking the river. They began a conversation that would change Russia forever.". "This book

Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent 1934-1941

William L. Shirer · 605 pages

Essential Historic Document. This is a most important historic document as it is the only known diary written by a professional journalist while on assignment in nazi Germany from 1933 to 1941. Prior to this, Bill Shirer was on assignment in Paris. There is no other Book I know that provides a better description of Germany's transformation from an essentially western democratic nation to a naz

Midnight in Sicily

Peter Robb · 400 pages

Chronicles the relationship of Italy's high-ranking politicians with the Sicily Mafia from the end of World War II to the present