Review: No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald

Author: Glenn Greenwald
Title: No Place To Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
Format/Source: Hardcover and eBook/library 
Published: May 2014
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Length: 254 pages
Genre: Journalism
Why I Read: Learn more about the subject from a key player
Read If You’re: Concerned about US surveillance and your privacy
Quote: “I only have one fear […] that people will see these documents and shrug, that they’ll say, ‘we assumed this was happening and don’t care’.” (29).
Rating:  ★★★★ [ratings guide]
GoodReads | IndieBound | Chapters | Amazon 

I thought No Place to Hide was going to be about the process of Snowden’s decision to leak documents and how the immediate aftermath of that affected him. Actually, this book can be divided into three very distinct yet significant parts. The first two chapters (~35%) of this book are indeed about Snowden, documenting his initial attempts to contact Greenwald up through the release of the first documents. These chapters, by nature of the activities they document, are exciting, intense and fascinating, especially if you want to know more about Snowden personally. Greenwald is one of the more qualified people writing about the leaking to give an account of Snowden’s personality and motivations.

The third chapter (the second part), “Collect it All”, explores some of the leaked documents. This chapter is extremely important and shocking (if, like me, you hadn’t looked at any of the actual documents), but it’s not as thrilling as the previous segment (again, by the nature of what the chapter describes – these are static documents, not people taking daring action). Because I had thought the entire book was going to be about Snowden, I was a bit taken aback and thus disappointed (though that’s my fault fault for having misconstructed expectations), but I still found this chapter a good, enlightening read. I did get stuck here for awhile because it’s so abruptly different from the first two chapters. The information contained is important, but it might be better served by having its own book. Here’s one disclosure that really blew me away:

I’d also like to note that the super secret classified PowerPoints slides are outrageous in their poor design and use of Clip Art. The visual presentation makes you laugh until you read the actual information being presented. Chapter Three concludes with the goal of surveillance:

When the United States is able to know everything that everyone is doing, saying, thinking, and planning – its own citizens, foreign populations, international corporations, other government leaders – its power over those factions is maximized. (198)

The third and final part of this book explores why citizens should be concerned about surveillance. This is where Greenwald starts to pick up steam again. He provides a clear reasoning as to why, even if you’re an upstanding citizen who never does anything wrong, you should be concerned about government surveillance. Even though I consider myself pretty left wing, I did sometimes naively wonder, “But if you haven’t done anything wrong, what’s the problem with surveillance?” Although I knew surveillance was bad, I couldn’t reason to myself why. Greenwald does a good job of that, making me think “Ah, yes, of course! That’s why.” One notable point he brings up is how surveillance has been passed from Republicans to Democrats, how it isn’t a dualistic issue with one side for and one side against (231). He concludes Chapter 4 with an important reminder summary of his discussion about transparency vs. privacy:

That is why we are called private individuals, functioning in our private capacity. Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else. (244)

The Bottom Line: No Place to Hide feels like three mini-books of information, each of which could easily filled a full book on its own. There’s a lot packed into these 254 pages (perhaps too much), but all of it valuable and fascinating and terrifying.

Elsewhere:

• Author Website (excerpt available)
• GQ Interview
• NPR Fresh Air Interview
• Terebrate In Depth Review
• The Guardian Review