ATTACK FROM WITHIN
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Attack from Within is an urgent, comprehensive explanation of the ways disinformation impacts democracy, and practical solutions that can be pursued to strengthen the public, media, and truth-based politics.
"A great public servant and one of the most acute observers of our time shares insightful views about the menace of disinformation."
—Eric H. Holder Jr, 82nd Attorney General of the United States
“A comprehensive guide to the dynamics of disinformation and a necessary call to the ethical commitment to truth that all democracies require.”
—Timothy Snyder, author of the New York Times bestseller On Tyranny
AVAILABLE NOW
Barbara McQuade
is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Ms. McQuade was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position. Earlier in her career, she worked as a sports writer and copy editor, a judicial law clerk, an associate in private practice, and an assistant U.S. attorney. She and her husband, Dan Hurley, have four children and live in Ann Arbor.
More about the book.
In Attack from Within, legal scholar and analyst Barbara McQuade, shows us how to identify the ways disinformation is seeping into all facets of our society and how we can fight against it.
The book explains
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a brief history of authoritarianism’s relationship to disinformation, from Mussolini and Hitler to Bolsonaro and Trump, chronicling the ways in which authoritarians have used disinformation to seize and retain power.
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like: demonizing the other, seducing with nostalgia, silencing critics, muzzling the media, condemning the courts; stoking violence — and why these disinformation tactics work.
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to disinformation, and how those who promote disinformation exploit our First Amendment Freedoms, spark threats and violence, and destabilize social structures.
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for countering disinformation and maintaining the rule of law such as making domestic terrorism a federal crime, increasing media literacy in schools, criminalizing doxxing, and much more.
Disinformation is designed to evoke a strong emotional response to push us toward more extreme views, unable to find common ground with others. The false claims that led to the breathtaking attack on our Capitol in 2020 may have been only a dress rehearsal. Attack from Within shows us how to prevent it from happening again.