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In this fascinating history of the lie detector, Ken Alder exposes some persistent truths about our culture: why we long to know the secret thoughts of our fellow citizens; why we believe in popular science; and why we embrace “truthiness.” For centuries people searched in vain for a way to unmask liars, seeking clues in the body’s outward signs: in blushing cheeks and shifty eyes. Not until the 1920s did a cop with a PhD team up with an entrepreneurial high school student and claim to have invented a foolproof machine capable of peering directly into the human heart. Scientists repudiated the technique, and judges banned its results from criminal trials, but in a few years their polygraph had transformed police work, seized headlines, and enthralled the nation.
In this book, Alder explains why America—and only America—has embraced this mechanical method of reading the human soul. Over the course of the twentieth century, the lie detector became integral to our justice system, employment markets, and national security apparatus, transforming each into a game of bluff and bluster. The lie detector device may not reliably read the human mind, but this lively account shows that the instrument’s history offers a unique window into the American soul.
“The lie detector and its strange persistent grip on the American imagination offers rich material for Mr. Alder to work with. How many stories require William James, Gertrude Stein and Dick Tracy for the telling, not to mention criminals like the Torso Murderer of Cleveland? Stir into the mix a mutually hostile coterie of inventors, scientific visionaries and outright hucksters, and you have the ingredients for a heady brew.”—William Grimes, New York Times
“A rollicking good time.”— Robin Marantz Henig, Wall Street Journal
“This engrossing portrait of two lives ruled by the lie detector is enhanced by Alder's cultural clarity about the credence accorded to the mechanical confessional.”—Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
“Alder spins a yarn of scientific innovation and personal vituperation set against the backdrop of mid-20th-century America. . . . While painting a rich, complex portrait of these men, Alder remains admirably skeptical of the machine itself, which he says is a uniquely American invention, designed to satisfy “a nation obsessed by criminal disorder and political corruption.’”—Publishers Weekly
“[Alder] offers us a rich history, organized around the careers of the individuals who conceived, developed and marketed the lie detector. He does not shy away from discussing larger questions about the culture that embraced the machine and allowed it to flourish, but he patiently waits until the developments in his story beg such discussion. The result is a fluent tale, personal yet pensive, well researched yet far from stuffy. This is Alder’s distinct style, and it has made him of the very few academic historians of science who have been able to cross over and attract large numbers of lay readers.”—Tal Golan, American Scientist
“[A] revealing, colloquial social history.”—David Wallace-Wells, Washington Monthly
"In The Lie Detectors, Alder has penned the definitive account of the device's invention and its explosion on the American stage."—Jon M. Sands, Jurimetrics
About the Author
Ken Alder is a professor of history and the Milton H. Wilson Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World and Engineering the Revolution.
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"The Lie Detectors" is the historical story of both the "lie detector" machine and the men who invented, researched and promoted the use of the machine. The men (and women) behind the machine were, in many ways, much more interesting than the machine itself, which has changed little since its invention.
Covered by the book are how the machine works, why it doesn't really work, why there was fighting between different factions involved with it's development and why the courts have not allowed the machine to be used in criminal cases. Also included are some of the high profile cases where the machine was used and how the machine either helped or hindered those cases.
The book is an interesting read, although it is a little "dense" in some areas. It is heavily researched and documented, and as well written as any historical work of its kind can be. If you are looking for a book primarily about the plain mechanics and operation of the machine, look elsewhere. If, however, you want to read the entire story behind the machine then this book is for you.
"The Lie Detectors; The History of an American Obsession is well-written, thoroughly researched history of the development and use of the polygraph in the USA. The authors have presented a balanced story of two dedicated lie detectors intent on improving the science of law enforcement. And what the authors indicate is that they have not brought any science to law enforcement at all. They have brought an updated method for frightening interrogation and intimidating test subjects into all sorts of admissions, some true, some false. These are the jabs. The missing knockout punch is that they never really do the statistical research to demonstrate how dangerous the testing is. Remember that TV crime reporter who seems to have caused a suicide by just proposing a lie detector test? No mention of that result in the book. Only occasional jabs; a reference here or there about the polygraph being right about 52% of the time. I was hoping to read why the lie detector test is a danger to anyone who submits to it and a real danger to any society that relies on it. But the history is fascinating. It's worth the read.
It was requested as a gift, and the person was very excited to receive it. Have not read it, therefore cannot reccomend personally but as I said it was highly requested as a gift..
Completely fails to present any of the "recent" (1970 to present) research that contradicts points made about early (1920 to 1940) Lie Detection. The National Academy of Sciences conservatively reports accuracy at 91% (2003), 72 different countries now use polygraph, 28 different federal law enforcement agencies now use polygraph, etc.
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2016
In his book, The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession (Free Press, Simon & Shuster 2007) Dr. Ken Alder, Professor of History, Northwestern University has written what I believe is the most authoritative account of the invention and historical life of–The Lie Detector, aka The Polygraph, aka “The Box.” The author presents us with a historically mesmerizing account of the birth, early life (and perhaps impending death?) of this remarkable invention along with the four main “players” surrounding its controversial use and applications in our courts, penal systems, government and private sectors over the past ninety years. The Lie Detectors, a book that could have easily become as dry as a soda cracker, in Professor Alder’s skillful hands is written with a masterful prose and wit. The lives of the four protagonists, Dr. John Larson, Leonarde Keeler, Police Chief August Vollmer and William Moulton Marston are intimately examined as the author introduces to each man’s strengths and weaknesses, their light and dark sides. Having worked as a homicide detective supervisor at LAPD’s Hollywood Division for seventeen years and investigated more than three hundred separate murders, I had numerous occasions to put potential suspects and witnesses on “The Box.” I was never convinced in that the polygraph worked. (In fact, over the decades on three separate occasions the polygraph examiner having run the suspect, informed me that “he’s lying and his deceptive” and in all three of those cases, subsequent investigation proved they had no part in the actual homicide. The only real value in police work as far as I was concerned was as an “investigative tool.” In many instances once the witness was “hooked up” to the machine, he or she would “cop out” and “tell the truth.” Professor Alder explores this aspect along with many others in this remarkable book. In my opinion this book confirms what, as a professional criminal investigator with fifty years of experience, I have always believed. The polygraph should never be admitted in a criminal court of law. Especially in the hands of an untrained “six weeks training and your good to go” examiner. I believe it remains subjective “junk science” in the same category as “bite marks” and graphology. I close my review by quoting Professor Alder from The Lie Detectors, Chapter 19, page 251: A review by the National Research Council in 1941, a meta-analysis by the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment in 1984, and a survey by the National Academy of Science in 2003 each concluded that the techniques of lie detection, as used in investigative work by polygraphers, do not pass scientific muster. Yet lie detection lives on. The lie detector cannot be killed by science, because it is not born of science. Its habitat is not the laboratory or even the courtroom, but newsprint, film, television and of course the pulps, comic books, and science fiction. To put it in the more sober language of economics: lie detection is demand driven. For more than eight years a polygraph of pulsing tubes and swelling diaphragms has supplied the requisite “science.” Now, at long last, the era of the polygraph seems to be drawing to a close, not because the science has changed—that happened decades ago—but because the public has come to believe in a different kind of science. The results have been mixed.
Steve Hodel LAPD Hollywood Homicide Detective III Steve Hodel (ret.) New York Times Bestselling author of Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder
Geoffrey C. BunnHardcover$19.90$11.57 shippingGet it as soon as Thursday, Jun 2Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
