... superb.

... elegant.

Soon after the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Bolshevik regime used misinformation to confuse its opponents.

Rid, who testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2017 on disinformation operations, recounts elaborate and sometimes shocking tactics used to disinform democratic societies and inflame passions.

Based on the book’s title, and its inclusion of the term 'political warfare', a reader might be forgiven for expecting the book to give its attention more equally to the two sides of the East-West conflict.

With this latest work, Rid...offers a history of the political control of information, usually in the form of disinformation.

The shadow war of lying—and truth-telling—between Russia and the U.S. is explored in this revealing study of covert propaganda.

The chronological narrative will demand significant effort from lay readers—not due to lack of clarity by the author, whose style is engaging, but because every extended case study requires separating partial truths told by the spy agency from the vast untruths that are necessarily part of the mix. For readers interested in current politics, Rid offers expert opinion that Russia is actively working to erode the foundation of U.S. democracy.