The recent Iran-Contra experience brought to light how intricately the political process revolves around questions of who knows what and who decides what should be secret. In this provocative new book, David Sadofsky offers a comprehensive examination of the relationship between the structure of American government and the treatment of information. With an emphasis on Watergate, the Vietnam War, and Iran-Contra, the book reveals a structural dynamic in U.S. government that replicates deep conflict over the control of information. The conflict often takes on the dimensions of a...

This study examines the role of privacy in American political thought, specifically, the rise, implementation, and consequences of the conservative social policies of the Reagan-Bush era as they relate to the question of privacy. In particular, the work focuses on some of the high-profile social issues of that period: the War on Drugs, so-called family values, abortion, sexuality, and discrimination. Sadofsky concludes that privacy-invasive public policies such as were initiated in the Reagan-Bush years are expensive, defy the Constitution, and actually cause dysfunctional social behavior....