Surveillance in America - by Ivan Greenberg

About the Book

Surveillance in America is a study of FBI surveillance practices and policies since 1920 based on recently declassified FBI files. This wide-ranging study looks at such subjects as the media, academic historians, the Watergate crisis, and surveillance of the American working class.

Book Synopsis

Surveillance in America is a study of FBI surveillance practices and policies since 1920 based on recently declassified FBI files. This wide-ranging study looks at such subjects as the media, academic historians, the Watergate crisis, and surveillance of the American working class.

Review Quotes

Can we speak freely if the FBI is listening in? Greenberg addresses this critical question through a sweeping and documented historical review of nearly a century of political spying. Read it; the FBI will.


In this tightly argued and impressively researched monograph, Greenberg, the author of the well-received Dangers of Dissent (2010), extends his earlier analysis of the threat expansive surveillance operations pose to civil liberties. Based on research in FBI records released in response to (his own and other) Freedom of Information Act requests and extensive reading of the relevant secondary literature, this book surveys FBI surveillance operations since 1920. Greenberg recounts in detail how FBI investigations extended beyond legitimate security threats to encompass radical and labor union activists, historians and prominent writers, reporters, and social justice proponents, and, in an interesting chapter, relates FBI Associate Director W. Mark Felt's questionable actions in the Watergate affair. In addition, the author pinpoints the fundamental shift in the conduct of such operations from the secret use of recognizably illegal or extralegal investigative procedures during the post-World War I through the Cold War eras to their legalization through permissive, wide-ranging legislation enacted in the 1990s, 2001, and 2008. Greenberg's sobering account offers a welcome perspective for assessing the current debate over the proper balance between security and liberty interests in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

About the Author

Ivan Greenberg is the author of The Dangers of Dissent: The FBI and Civil Liberties since 1965.