The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

by Jane Mayer Narrated by Richard McGonagle

Overview

In the days following September 11, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. The decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long-held agenda to enhance presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history.

The Dark Side is a riveting narrative account of how the U.S. made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists-decisions that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In gripping detail, acclaimed New Yorker writer and bestselling author Jane Mayer relates specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of Washington, looking at the intelligence gained-or not-and the price paid. In all cases, whatever the short-term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. The Dark Side chronicles one of the mostdisturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.

Editorial Reviews

The events of September 11, 2001, caused a major national crisis, but according to New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer, they also created an almost unprecedented opportunity for Bush administration leaders to enact a long-held ideological agenda to centralize power. In The Dark Side, the first female Wall Street Journal White House correspondent describes how high officials including Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, David Addington, acted decisively in ways that violated the Constitution and traditional American values. According to Mayer, these decisions not only undermined our legal system, they also weakened our struggle against Al Qaeda.

Alan Brinkley

a powerful, brilliantly researched and deeply unsettling book…The Bush administration is not, of course, the first or only regime to violate civil liberties. John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt all authorized or tolerated terrible violations of civil and human rights, all of them in response to great national and global crises. In some respects, the Bush administration is simply following a familiar path by responding to real dangers with illegal and deplorable methods. But Jane Mayer's extraordinary and invaluable book suggests that it would be difficult to find any precedent in American history for the scale, brutality and illegality of the torture and degradation inflicted on detainees over the last six years; and that it would be even harder to imagine a set of policies more likely to increase the dangers facing the United States and the world.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

Following the paper trail left by the blank check the government and the citizenry gave the Bush administration after 9/11, Mayer tracks the nuanced and specific actions that have resulted in a devaluation of American ideals both domestically and abroad. Her talent lies in identifying the key moments, cases, actions and decisions that proved pivotal in empowering a monarchical executive power to avoid checks and balances. Mayer's comprehensive and detailed approach certainly ranks her work higher among the scores of books on the Bush administration. Richard McGonagle has a powerfully resonant and gruff voice that is at times deliberate and works effectively with the tone of this book. Occasionally, however, he seems distant, not monotonic, but projecting the sense he is just going through the motions. A Doubleday hardcover (reviewed online).(Aug.)

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Product Details

BN ID:	2940172194269
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	07/15/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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