Eyes in the Shadows

"This is the first comprehensive account of systematic state surveillance by the US military. Alexandre Rios-Bordes examines the development and deployment of military surveillance across four decades, but what particularly distinguishes this book is that it also considers the different features of surveillance that carry moral weight. Beautifully written, Eyes in the Shadows will appeal to all those who read Beverly Gage's G-Man on J. Edgar Hoover."--Daniel Carpenter, author of Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870

"Eyes in the Shadows changes our understanding of when and how the US military began to spy on domestic dissidents. The book is not only meticulously researched, but also brilliantly analytical. It will reshape our understanding of the origins of the national security surveillance state."--Kathryn Olmsted, author of Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11

"Cameras, eavesdropping, hackers: surveillance haunts contemporary imaginations. Rios-Bordes traces the genesis of these services in the American army around the time of the First World War: soldiers obtained, and then retained in peacetime, an inordinate power of investigation over their fellow citizens suspected of subversion, particularly Black and labor activists. This meticulous piece of work allows us to ask a question as old as suspicion: who watches those who watch?"--Le Monde