Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

UPDATED EDITION: The MSNBC legal analyst explores the impact of disinformation after the 2024 presidential election--and what Americans can do before it’s too late.

＂A comprehensive guide to the dynamics of disinformation and a necessary call to theethical commitment to truth that all democracies require.＂ --Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny

Disinformation--the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth, whether from opportunists on the far right, misinformed media influencers, or others--is fragmenting America more than ever before, pushing the nation toward extreme views, civil unrest, and violence.

In this bestselling book, now with a new foreword by the author, Barbara McQuade identifies how disinformation is seeping into all facets of our society, causing havoc in our voting systems, schools, hospitals, workplaces, and the Capitol.

McQuade, an MSNBC legal analyst and former federal prosecutor confronts the ways disinformation is being weaponized to polarize voters, degrade our legal structures, and leverage the political influence of manipulators and authoritarians. Now newly updated, Attack from Within shows us how to fight back against misinformed, extremist thinking and work toward preserving America’s hard-won democracy.

Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Ms. McQuade was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position. Earlier in her career, she worked as a sports writer and copy editor, a judicial law clerk, an associate in private practice, and an assistant U.S. attorney. She and her husband have four children and live in Ann Arbor.