Top Secret America Book Summary - Top Secret America Book explained in key points
Listen to the Intro
00:00

Top Secret America summary

Dana Priest and William M. Arkin

The Rise of the New American Security State

(5 ratings)
18 mins
10 key ideas
Audio & text

What is Top Secret America about?

This book shows how the American security state expanded its powers after 9/11 by establishing Top Secret America – a group of agencies that operate largely in secrecy. Though Top Secret America was founded to protect Americans, it’s created new dangers instead. Top Secret America has been a waste of resources and a threat to liberty, and it must be shut down as soon as possible.

About the Author

Dana Priest is an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, and the author of The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America’s Military. She’s received two Pulitzer Prizes for her work, and she writes extensively on national security. William M. Arkin is a political commentator and a journalist. He’s also an expert on both American and international military activities.

Table of Contents

    Top Secret America
    summarized in 10 key ideas

    Audio & text in the Blinkist app
    Key idea 1 of 10

    Secret sections of the American government are increasing their activity, with very little supervision.

    Do you trust your government? In recent years, an increasing number of Americans have begun questioning the power and actions of their politicians and civil servants.

    This is largely because many government activities are now taking place in secret, rather than in the public sphere. The authors of this book call this hidden area of the government “Top Secret America.”

    Secret agencies, such as the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) have grown immensely in recent years. This is supposedly a response to new threats to the nation, most notably from post-9/11 terrorism.

    In an attempt to fight such threats, these secret agencies have lost a great deal of accountability and visibility in government. Citizens are unable to track what they get up to. Why is this?

    Well, when the security sector began to grow, it grew without supervision. Many of the documents used by security agencies are classified as top secret, meaning that most outsiders can’t access them.

    Even those who can access these documents find it hard to make sense of them. Top secret documents can only be read in secure reading rooms, where note-taking is forbidden. Moreover, readers aren’t allowed to consult experts like lawyers or academics for help in understanding them.

    Two super-users – people who are able to access the documents – told the authors that there simply isn’t enough time in one human life to thoroughly go through all of them.

    Clearly, there is little adequate supervision of what secret agencies are doing. For the most part, they are allowed to do whatever they please, and this has had serious consequences.

    Want to see all full key ideas from Top Secret America?

    Key ideas in Top Secret America

    More knowledge in less time
    Read or listen
    Read or listen
    Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
    Find your next read
    Find your next read
    Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
    Shortcasts
    Shortcasts New
    We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

    Who should read Top Secret America

    • Anyone interested in international or American politics
    • Anyone interested in the War on Terror and the aftermath of 9/11
    • Anyone interested in the debate surrounding security and personal freedom

    Categories with Top Secret America

    What our members say

    Sven O.

    It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

    Thi Viet Quynh N.

    Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

    Jonathan A.

    Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

    Renee D.

    Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.

    Start growing with Blinkist now
    25 Million
    Downloads on all platforms
    4.7 Stars
    Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
    91%
    Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
    *Based on survey data from Blinkist customers
    Powerful ideas from top nonfiction

    Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 5,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.

    Start your free trial