What do environmental impact statements, unit pricing at supermarkets, and the torture memos of the George W. Bush administration have in common? According to Schudson, they are all examples of information derived from what he calls “the new culture of disclosure” that developed during the 1960s and early 1970s (276). Although we take for granted that citizens have a right to know what their government is doing, that demand for transparency has a surprisingly recent provenance—one that this provocative study sets out to explore.
Now a value in itself, openness affects more areas of contemporary life than is immediately apparent. It is, Schudson contends, responsible for phenomena that range from the pressure for accountability within the federal bureaucracy to the willingness of physicians to tell patients that they have cancer. Not only has this new call for candor brought hitherto taboo subjects into the public domain; it has also transformed...