Superb ... Rid's achievement in this book is that he places our crazy, upside-down politics in a coherent historical context ... Rid provides the best narrative I've read anywhere of how the Russian disinformation campaign in 2016 was run from the GRU in Moscow and the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. Anyone who reads this account and doesn't conclude that the Russians played the Trump campaign like a violin has a tin ear. -- David Ignatius * Washington Post * A must-read ... Rid helps remind us how we reached this morass, one with antecedents reaching back to Czarist Russia and the Bolshevik revolution. -- Lloyd Green * Guardian * Fascinating and well-researched history -- Lawrence D. Freedman * Foreign Affairs * Skillfully illuminates and demystifies this ballyhooed but much-misunderstood subject * Publishers Weekly starred review * Important insights * Economist * Engrossing ... invaluable -- James Gibney * The American Scholar * Groundbreaking ... Thomas Rid looks deep into neglected East European State Security archives, tracks down Cold War-era active measures officers, and examines fresh digital forensics in order to tell the true history of what we now know as disinformation. Active Measures is full of great stories that give contemporary events the historical context that has, until now, been missing. -- Anne Applebaum * Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag: A History * Thomas Rid's timely Active Measures is an instant classic. He provides a comprehensive look at the political attacks we witnessed in 2016, and reminds us that deception and disinformation have deep historical roots. He also shows that the effects of active measures can be long-lasting, but can also boomerang on those who initiate them. As free societies look to defend against future deception campaigns, they will need to understand both the past and the new technologies that help to weaponize the practice in the present. Thomas Rid's excellent book is the best place to start. -- John Sipher * former member of the CIA's Senior Intelligence Service * Thomas Rid, a recognized expert in information security, investigates the history of disinformation, taking us back to its modern origins. He tells a series of thrilling stories of how this subtle game was played by the founder of the Soviet secret police, his successors at the KGB, their Western counterparts, and contemporary Russian intelligence operators. Rid has produced a book that is destined to become a seminal work on the topic. -- Andrei Soldatov * coauthor of The Red Web: The Kremlin's War on the Internet * Active Measures provides a comprehensive look at the disinformation game, from the 1920s through the digital revolution. Thomas Rid gives the reader an insider's view of how high-profile influence campaigns are designed and executed, thus providing historical perspective that can help us blunt the impact of disinformation. For that reason alone, Active Measures is a must-read. -- Nada Bakos * former analyst and targeting officer at the CIA *