Publicity Spotlight

Chicago Review Press Releases Private, the First Major Biography on Pfc Bradley Manning

Beginning in 2010 and continuing into the following year, a series of leaks shocked the world by exposing classified military and state secrets on a massive and unprecedented scale. An Apache airstrike video, now commonly known as “Collateral Murder,” a trove of Iraq and Afghanistan war documents and over 250,000 diplomatic cables were published in the world’s major newspapers and circulated throughout the web, propelling a budding anti-secrecy website into international prominence; yet Wikileaks was merely the middleman.

The person allegedly responsible for the biggest breach of military secrets in U.S. history was a 22-year-old low-ranking Army intelligence analyst from Oklahoma: Private Bradley Manning.

Private: Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History by journalist Denver Nicks sets the record straight, scrupulously disclosing Manning’s story and the outsized effect it has had on the world. Nicks appeared on CBS News' "Up to the Minute" to discuss the case against Manning and revealed details from the book, which publishes on June 1 (available for pre-order). Newsweek has also published the first publicly released excerpt, which reveals not only more about Pfc Bradley Manning, but his unexpected political aspirations as well. Private not only explores Manning’s life and the decisions that led him to the actions for which he is famous today, but also probes into a deeper and more pervasive problem involving American National Security. Nicks draws from a wide array of sources and exhaustive reporting to build an intelligent and compelling narrative that links Manning, American secrecy and the development of hacker philosophy—and the consequent success of Wikileaks—to explain the largest leak of official secrets to date.

Watch author Denver Nicks explain the case to CBS News  >
Read an excerpt from Private featured in Newsweek  >
Download the full press release for Private  >
Learn more about Private  >