'Rigged' Explores Century of Election Tampering

Journalist Shimer debuts with a provocative and well-sourced study tracking Russian and U.S. efforts to influence foreign elections from the early 20th century to the present day. Though the history of covert electoral interference began with Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin’s efforts to spread communism in the wake of WWI, Shimer writes, both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. “targeted elections aggressively and frequently” during the Cold War. His examples include CIA efforts to keep left-wing candidates out of office in Italy and Chile, and the KGB’s role in ensuring that West German chancellor Willy Brandt survived a 1972 no-confidence vote.