About this item
Highlights
- Winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel PrizeA groundbreaking look at how ordinary people are fighting back against their local and state governments to keep their communities safe, by an award-winning journalist Most Americans are likely to encounter the effects of government malfeasance or neglect close to home--from their governors, mayors, town councils, school boards, police, and prosecutors.
- About the Author: Miranda S. Spivack is a veteran reporter and editor who specializes in stories about government accountability and secrecy.
- 256 Pages
- Social Science,
Description
About the Book
"A work of investigative reporting on five "accidental activists" who fight back against local and state governments to keep their communities safe"--Book Synopsis
Winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel PrizeA groundbreaking look at how ordinary people are fighting back against their local and state governments to keep their communities safe, by an award-winning journalist
Most Americans are likely to encounter the effects of government malfeasance or neglect close to home--from their governors, mayors, town councils, school boards, police, and prosecutors. In fact, deals shrouded in darkness are regularly made at the state and local levels, often the result of closed-door discussions between governments and industry without any scrutiny whatsoever from the public. Too often, as this groundbreaking new work of investigative reporting reveals, residents are intentionally kept on the outside, struggling to get information about significant issues affecting their communities--from car crashes and dirty drinking water, to failing safety gear--until the backroom deals are done and it's too late to challenge them.
A work of riveting narrative nonfiction based on years of original reporting, Backroom Deals in Our Backyards tells the story of five "accidental activists"--people from across the United States who started questioning why their local and state governments didn't protect them from issues facing their communities and why there was a frightening lack of transparency surrounding the way these issues were resolved. The secret deals, lies, and corruption they uncover shake their faith in government but move them to action.
For readers of Chain of Title and Superman's Not Coming, Spivack's revealing take on a hidden dimension of American politics will outrage and educate anyone who cares about the forces shaping their own communities.
Review Quotes
Praise for Backroom Deals in Our
Backyards:
"An enraging exposé
of a nationwide culture of
corruption."
--Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
'Unsafe At Any
Speed of our time, highlighting the corrosive
secrecy of increasingly powerful local governments. Beyond identifying an
under-covered problem, to her enormous credit, she offers a deeply reported
look at accidental activists who became Davids that beat Goliath. Based on
their experiences, she offers a playbook for how citizens can effectively fight
back against abuses of power in their own communities. With local reporting in
decline, and more power being delegated to states, we'll depend increasingly on
individual watchdogs like those featured here to expose wrongdoing and force
change."
--James
Hohmann, The Washington
Post
Spivack not only demonstrates how government secrecy threatens democracy. She
shows us how ordinary people can fight to make local government more
transparent. This eye-opening and meticulously reported book is both a call to
action and a road map for success."
--Linda
Greenhouse, Yale Law School "An urgent exposé, Backroom
Deals in Our Backyards not only uncovers the
dangers of government secrecy but highlights the unsung heroes fighting it.
Miranda's dogged reporting, combined with her empathetic and powerful prose,
make this as easy to read as it is important."
--Sara
Ganim, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist "In Backroom Deals in
our Backyards, Miranda Spivack shows that there's no real
democracy without accountability, no real accountability without government
transparency and no real government transparency without a fight. This book
celebrates the fighters, American democracy's life-size heroes like my
constituent Richard Boltuck, who demanded nothing more--and nothing less--than
public information about River Road in Bethesda so we could protect the safety
of young pedestrians in a school zone. Bravo to Miranda Spivack for shining a
positive light on the people determined to shine a positive light."
--Congressman Jamie Raskin, #1 New York
Times bestselling author of Unthinkable:
Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American
Democracy
"When
governments and corporations collude, the public suffers--but that doesn't have
to be the end of the story. Spivack shares incredible true tales of ordinary
people who fought injustice against incredible odds. It's a book that will
inspire and equip readers with the tools they need to ask their own
questions--and get them answered."
--Michael Morisy,
founder and chief executive of MuckRock
About the Author
Miranda S. Spivack is a veteran reporter and editor who specializes in stories about government accountability and secrecy. She spent twenty years as an award-winning editor and reporter for the Washington Post. A former Fulbright Scholar and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at DePauw University and the author of Backroom Deals in Our Backyards (The New Press), she lives in Maryland.