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

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  • 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

  • Meticulous, lucid, compelling.  Spurred by the 'fierce urgency of now....'

    Carol Anderson, author of One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying our Democracy and the New York Times bestseller White Rage

  • This is a compelling work about a challenge that—left unexamined and left unchecked—could undermine our democracy."

    Eric H. Holder Jr, 82nd Attorney General of the United States

  • Is our democracy destined for death by disinformation? That is among the urgent questions addressed by Barb McQuade in this timely and engaging book.

    Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present

  • Her book is a wake-up call for the need to take back power from social media platforms and would-be authoritarians and restore our democratic norms and responsibility to the truth.

    Asha Rangappa, Assistant Dean and Senior Lecturer, Jackson School of Global Affairs, Yale University, Former FBI Counterintelligence Agent

  • As someone who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, I understand the dangers of authoritarianism. If you want to understand the risks to democracy and how we can address them, read this important book.

    Martina Navratilova

  • Barb McQuade has the rare ability to ask the right questions and then answer them.

    Joyce Vance, Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law, University of Alabama School of Law, and former US Attorney in Alabama

  • Barb McQuade traces the history of disinformation from its inception to modern day brilliantly linking past challenges of falsehoods and how they become amplified in the digital age.

    Clint Watts, Former FBI Special Agent, Consultant to FBI National Security Branch

  • Whenever Professor McQuade has something to say, I listen—and learn. Attack from Within is a brilliantly vital defense of truth, justice and the rule of law against a multitude of political and technological threats to our precious democracy.

    David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer

  • Drawing comparisons between authoritarians of the past through Trump, with a series of chilling anecdotes, McQuade crystallizes the seriousness of what happened on January 6th and the ongoing threat to our country. Now more than never, it’s critical to read this profound book.

    Preet Bharara, Former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

  • This book is required reading for any American who wants to understand the threat misinformation poses, and a roadmap for how to fight against that threat.

    Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Senior Opinion Writer, The Boston Globe

  • Barbara McQuade has written a compelling page turner. You’ll learn how authoritarians destroy democracy through mis- and disinformation and the psychological forces inherent in all of us that make us believe them even when we know it’s a con.

    Jill Wine-Banks, author of The Watergate Girl, MSNBC analyst, co-host, #SistersInLaw and iGenPolitics podcasts

Barabara McQuade photo

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

  • 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.

  • like: demonizing the other, seducing with nostalgia, silencing critics, muzzling the media, condemning the courts; stoking violence — and why these disinformation tactics work.

  • to disinformation, and how those who promote disinformation exploit our First Amendment Freedoms, spark threats and violence, and destabilize social structures.

  • 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.