{"product_id":"clearer-than-truth-the-polygraph-and-the-american-cold-war-9781625343253","title":"Clearer Than Truth: The Polygraph and the","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA person strapped to a polygraph machine. Nervous eyes, sweaty brow, the needle trembling up and down. Few images are more evocative of Cold War paranoia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this first comprehensive history of the polygraph as a tool and symbol of American Cold War policies, John Philipp Baesler tells the story of a technology with weak scientific credentials that was nevertheless celebrated as a device that could expose both internal and external enemies. Considered the go-to technology to test agents' and employees' loyalty, the polygraph's true power was to expose deep ideological and political fault lines. While advocates praised it as America's hard-nosed yet fair answer to communist brainwashing, critics claimed that its use undermined the very values of justice, equality, and the presumption of innocence for which the nation stood.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eClearer Than Truth\u003c\/em\u003e demonstrates that what began as quick-fix technology promising a precise test of honesty and allegiance eventually came to embody tensions in American Cold War culture between security and freedom, concerns that reach deep into the present day.","brand":"University of Massachusetts Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041771127127,"sku":"9781625343253","price":35.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781625343253.jpg?v=1750951618","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/clearer-than-truth-the-polygraph-and-the-american-cold-war-9781625343253","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}