Permanent Record: A Memoir of a Reluctant Whistleblower - Softcover

Snowden, Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 152903566X ISBN 13: 9781529035667

Publisher: Macmillan, 2019

Synopsis

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLER

Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.

In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.

Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online – a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet’s conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.

About this title

About the Author

Edward Snowden was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and grew up in the shadow of Fort Meade. A systems engineer by training, he served as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, and worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency. He has received numerous awards for his public service, including the Right Livelihood Award, the German Whistleblower Prize, the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling, and the Carl von Ossietzky Medal from the International League of Human Rights. Currently, he serves as president of the board of directors of the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

From the Back Cover

In 2013, Edward Snowden, a former CIA agent and NSA contractor, shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the U.S. government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every phone call, text message, and email ever sent. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. In Permanent Record, he tells his story for the very first time, bringing the reader along as he helps to create this system of mass surveillance, and then experiences the crisis of conscience that led him to try to bring it down.

“Edward Snowden decided at the age of 29 to give up his entire future for the good of his country,” said John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan. “He displayed enormous courage in doing so, and like him or not, his is an incredible American story. There is no doubt that the world is a better and more private place for his actions. Macmillan is enormously proud to publish Permanent Record."

Permanent Record will be published globally by Macmillan Publishers on September 17, 2019. In the United States the memoir will be published by Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt; in the U.K. by Pan Macmillan; and in Germany by S. Fischer Verlag. The book was edited by Metropolitan Books under the leadership of Sara Bershtel, senior vice-president and publisher.

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 152903566X
• ISBN 13: 9781529035667
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352