In 1964, a book entitled The Invisible Government shocked Americans with its revelations of agencies playing fast and loose; a secret government lodged inside the one they knew that even the president didn't fully control. Almost half a century later, Tom Engelhardt takes in something new: what is no longer a national security state, but a global security one, fighting secret wars that have turned the US president into an assassin-in-chief. Shadow Government offers a powerful survey of a democracy of the wealthy that older generations wouldn't recognise.