Thread by @doctorow

"Permanent Record," Edward @Snowden's 2019 memoir, was just what I'd hoped for: a record of a personal journey, recounted in service to a thoughtful, nuanced argument for civil disobedience and acts of conscience.

memex.craphound.com/2019/09/24/per…

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Whistleblowers are often complicated figures. Often, a whistleblower acts out of mixed motivations - personal grievance, trauma, anger. Sometimes they're incoherent and struggle to frame their deeds.

Not Snowden.

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As Permanent Record makes clear, he acted out of principle, after lengthy soul-searching, because he believed in his country and was both elated at the liberatory power of tech and terrified by its power to oppress.

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On top of that, Permanent Record is a beautifully written, gripping technothriller, a procedural that explains the nuts and bolts of encryption, operational security, both fascinating and revelatory, a guide to what you should be worried about, and what you can do about it.

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But Permanent Record keeps getting better! Today, Henry Holt released "Permanent Record: Young Readers Edition," which is exactly what it sounds like, a young adult version of Snowden's memoir, laying out his story and his principles for teens.

us.macmillan.com/books/97812507…

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Speaking as someone who grew up on the kind of Heinlein "juvie" that read like a super cool older brother who put his arm around your shoulder and said, "Look, kid, I'm going to tell you how the world works" --

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Speaking as a writer who tried to capture that same spirit with my own book Little Brother - a book whose working title was "Wikipedia Brown," and which I pitched as "Howard Zinn meets Have Spacesuit Will Travel" --

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Speaking as the father of an adolescent --

This is an amazing book.

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Snowden's sprightly prose, his deep technical knowledge, his superb knack for explaining complex matters, his ability to articulate principled action all come together in a book that is, if anything, BETTER than the adult version.

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Books for teens cast a long shadow. They can alter the course of a person's life. I was permanently affected by the books I read as an adolescent. Snowden isn't just simplifying his message for kids here.

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He's engaging with a generation of people who will never know a life without the internet, but who might someday know a life free from ubiquitous surveillance.

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Tonight at 7PM Pacific I'm helping Snowden launch the book in a livestreamed event in collaboration with Copperfield Books:

eventbrite.com/e/edward-snowd…

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