Shimer provides a subtle and evenhanded portrait of a White House in an unprecedented crisis ... With the pacing of a thriller and the insight of a superb work of history, the book paints an understandable yet dismaying picture of a missed opportunity ... To contextualize the mind-sets of Obama and Putin and their secret warriors in the fall of 2016, Shimer skillfully reconstructs the history of how both Washington and Moscow got into the business of election interference in the first place. While not breaking much new archival ground, he provides a powerful primer, at the same time avoiding the reflexive 'whataboutism' that mars so much analysis ... On the eve of our national referendum on Trump and Trumpism, this book is nothing less than essential reading.
... [an] important new history ... If Russia's attack on the 2016 election and other elections in Great Britain and Western Europe seemed like bolts from the blue, they shouldn't. Shimer's authoritative book places them in their proper context as only the latest installments in the long-running and sometimes grim practice of statecraft ... The American stories haven't been excavated as often and make for fascinating reading, as when President Harry Truman ordered the CIA to help defeat communists in Italy's 1948 election ... Shimer recounts the story in ample detail and includes the views of both those who think it was determinative and those who believe it wasn't. His section about the torturous deliberations within President Obama's administration about how to respond to Russia's active measures is comprehensive to the point of encyclopedic.
... absorbing ... here is where Shimer’s account is particularly newsworthy. Through an impressive array of on-the-record interviews with former high-level Obama officials, Shimer describes an administration that initially missed Russia’s threat to the integrity of the U.S. election and that, upon grasping the risks, blinked.
... offers a convincing analysis of what changed in the three decades since the cold war and with the arrival in the Kremlin of Vladimir Putin ... Shimer has assembled a broad collection of expert voices...It’s a shame Shimer doesn’t talk to other Russians; they after all are the biggest losers from Putin’s spy games ... offers a judicious overview of our unhappy times.
... provides decades of context to one of the most sophisticated acts of propaganda in modern history ... Although he sometimes dips into questionable Cold War rhetoric, Rigged is essential reading for anyone who wants to unpack how Putin interfered with the 2016 United States election and what we need to change ... Rigged’s greatest strength is its access to direct sources...Some interviews are more candid than others. Former CIA official Arturo Muñoz is an unexpected breakout star ... Reading about the Clintons, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden in the Cold War’s heyday sheds light on their present-day policy stances. They also remind the reader that top US leadership is a gerontocracy that had no hope of understanding social media until it was too late ... also reveals the ethical conundrums of foreign policy ... The voices of regular people are notably absent. It’s strange reading a book where the author can land an interview with a former US president, but not one of the manipulated voters in Chile or Germany. The omission circumvents any meaningful discussion of those voters’ worries, like hunger or violence. Reading the superpower tit-for-tat reminded me of playing a video game, like Civilization, where the people’s grievances are just a number to be managed ... Shimer’s characterization of Putin is delicious ... When Shimer writes, 'The United States can again defend the democratic experiment, so long as we, as citizens, are willing to do the work,' he takes a risk on optimism to call for the best in Americans. We’ll see who answers.
... provocative and well-sourced ... Though his prose style is more scholarly than scintillating, Shimer makes excellent use of archival research and interviews with U.S. government insiders and intelligence experts. This incisive treatise lays bare the monumental task of countering foreign interference in the 2020 election.
... thoroughgoing ... Shimer offers a fascinating counterfactual in the case of Willy Brandt, who, aided unwittingly by Soviet agents, urged détente between East and West Germany and the superpowers behind them ... A useful addition to the discussion though unlikely to change Mitch McConnell’s mind on election security.
