The Secret Service - by Philip H Melanson (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in paperback comes the first definitive history to probe the long-shrouded U.S. government agency recently merged into the Homeland Security Department.

Book Synopsis

This new edition of the definitive history of the Secret Service lays bare the 2004 Bush campaign's political uses of the agency and the new challenges it faces as a branch of the Homeland Security Department, in a post-9/11 world. Acclaimed scholar of political violence and governmental secrecy Philip Melanson explores the long-hidden workings of the Secret Service since its inception in 1865 and through rigorous research and extensive interviews with former White House staffers and retired agents, uncovers startling facts about the Agency's role in such traumatic national events as the assassination of JFK and the shooting of President Reagan. Included, too, are revelations about presidential demands on the agency; the problems of alcoholism, divorce, and burnout among agents; and the Service's inexplicable failure to develop profiles of potential assassins. Up-to-date and explosive, this book assails the public image of the Secret Service as a highly professional apolitical organization, exposing the often-detrimental influence that politics exerts on the Agency.

Review Quotes

"A needed lesson. Excessive secrecy can sometimes be hazardous to the nation's health."

"Eminently readable ... thoughtfulness combined with the author's well-considered focus and temperance."

"Valuable ... unveils the agency in all its glory and blemishes."

About the Author

Philp H. Melanson, Ph. D., an expert on political violence and governmental secrecy, has done original research into the JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King assassinations, prompting appearances on CBS Evening News, BBC, History Channel, Discovery Channel, and C-SPAN.

He has served as a consultant to the (JFK) Assassinations-Records Review Board, and is coordinator of the RFK Assassination Archives at the University of Massachussetts Dartmouth. His last book was Secrecy Wars: National Security, Privacy, and the Public's Right to Know. He lives in Marion, Massachussetts.