Private:Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History

The book Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History by Denver Nicks is about a young boy who grew up to be the man who created the “Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History”. It began on acres of countryside in Crescent, Oklahoma where he was born and had a very troubled life. The book goes on about how he grew up as a not so popular kid and felt very out of place. As he grew up in a home with alcoholic parents his sister was the one who ended up taking care of him. At the age of 11 his mother attempted suicide and had to be rushed to the hospital by his older sister as he took care of her in the back of the car. Later on they moved to Wales. Manning was very opinionated and was also gay which led to a lot of bullying from other kids. Manning returned to the US at age 17 when his mother was becoming ill. He had a troubled career path and kept switching jobs and was left broke and had to rely on family members that he didn’t even know at some points in his life. When he was 19 he joined the Navy for five year as a intelligence analyst which gave him access to a lot of classified information. And so his journey to leaking this information began. He leaked information on documents and combat videos from Afghanistan and Iraq. When he was caught he was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but had it shortened to 7 years of confinement. When he got out of prison some people praised him for what he had done while others shunned him. The author shows us both sides of the story leaving us to pick our side of the case and side with or against Bradley Manning.

Overall this book wasn’t very interesting, it was a little confusing at times as well. The chronology didn’t seem to make too much sense especially when going from the events of the actual leaks of data to the background of Bradley Manning as a child. The book did not seem to have real rhythm and it couldn’t keep me interested for longer than about twenty minutes at a time. Though the book was boring at some points it did have a few bright spots. The descriptions of the way Bradley Manning was able to hack computers made it easy for readers to understand what was going on and not get confused in the endless world of technology. The description of technology was one of the major strengths to this book. Even the background of Bradley’s life was a strength because it gave the readers an idea to see what his reasoning for leaking the information was all about. The background may not have been placed in the right place in the book which was a key weakness, but the description of his life before the leaking of the data was helpful. Another weakness to this book is the amount of useless facts about Bradley’s life before the leaks such as “In mid-April 2005, Brad and Jordan got jobs at Incredible Pizza, a massive family-friendly pizza parlor and arcade, with a facade like a neon castle, looming over a South Tulsa strip mall.” (Nicks 52). This sentence really doesn’t mean much in the overall scheme of the book. It does tell us that he did skip around jobs a lot which is mildly important and shows his character, but all of the excess details about the store seem like they are just filling up blank space.

The author does give us and idea about why Bradley would have done something that would almost inevitable gotten him caught by describing his life without true parents. After his father told his mother that he was leaving her, his mother tried to end things for good, “That night Sue swallowed a handful of pills. Minutes later she woke up her daughter and told her she’d tried to kill herself… So Casey woke her dad, but he was too drunk to drive. They woke Bradley and piled in the car. Brian went for the front seat, but Casey stopped him - sit in the back to make sure Mom is all right, she told him. Bradley could keep and eye on her, Brian said. They drove to the hospital with the eleven year-old in the back making sure his mom didn’t stop breathing” (Nicks 17). This quote shows the authors intuitiveness to be able to show scenes from the past to demonstrate why things occurred in the future.

This book was not one of the best reads, but it did give me a lot of different viewpoints on how our government works and how easily someone can turn against them and ruin almost everything if they send out the right information. I would recommend this book to people who like learning about how our government and military work. People who like social sciences should also read this book. For people like me who are more into sports and action books it might not be the best route to take. It does not have any action and there are no astonishing moments that really keep the reader interested. So there are upsides and downsides to reading this book, and it mainly comes from what types of books you like to read. The author does do a really nice job of painting a picture of why Bradley decided to leak all of the classified information, but on the other hand it does not fit the flow of the story. So people who need a story that flows would not really enjoy reading this book for the most part, while people who can read scattered information would have a better time.

Works Cited

Nicks, Denver. Private: Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History. Chicago Review Press, 2012.