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Backroom Deals in Our Backyards: How Government Secrecy Harms Our Communities and the Local Heroes Fighting Back
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 6, 2025
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102 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 13, 2025
We have become so used to associating the principle of transparency with freedom of the press. But there is a deeper and more important level of transparency in every healthy society: this is the one that does not just prevent the press from asking questions, but operates under a duty to inform.
In “Backroom Deals in Our Backyards”, Miranda S. Spivack illuminates a toxic (pun fully intended) threat to both democratic principles and the well-being of communities across America: the increasing tendency towards secrecy on the part of governments and corporations.
Spivack argues (with convincing cases) that this information blackout is not just a bureaucratic nuisance, but a deliberate strategy used to maintain power and protect interests, often with devastating consequences for ordinary citizens.
The book is structured around the stories of a handful of people the author calls “accidental activists”. These individuals, with no prior experience in research or community organizing, found themselves facing hidden problems in their own backyards. They confronted “the unfair alliances” between governments and businesses that allowed negligence and collusion by concealing vital information.
The stories presented are varied, but all highlight the same basic problem: that of deliberate cover up and its real-life implications.
There is the case of Hoosick Falls, New York, where Michael Hickey, who became an accidental investigator due to his father's death from cancer, uncovered a cover-up by the local government about poisoned drinking water.
There is also Richard Boltuck's fight in Maryland which revealed state concealment and failure to act on accident data, fearing that the public might challenge or sue private contractors.
And then there is the investigation by Diane Cotter, which revealed how manufacturers and government agencies, in collaboration with the firefighters' union, allowed known risks to be concealed about toxic chemicals (such as PFAS) in firefighters' protective clothing.
The book does not stop at highlighting the problems. It offers a guide on how ordinary citizens can fight this bureaucracy of secrecy. These “accidental activists” learned to use tools such as public records access laws, build support networks (often through social media), seek legal help, communicate with journalists, and strategically lobby politicians and bureaucrats.
Despite difficulties, personal adversity, and powerful opponents, their efforts have been successful in exposing hidden risks and forcing action from governments and corporations.
The central idea that emerges from the sources is that transparency is not just an abstract idea, but a fundamental element of a functioning democracy that protects the health, safety and freedom of citizens. The book concludes with a strong call for vigilance, stressing that the public holds power, but must actively exercise it, demanding an end to secrecy and fighting for the principles of public notice, observation, participation and consultation.
Although not directly addressed by the author, I argue that the main takeaway of the book is that the well-known saying ‘democracy dies in darkness’ is not just about the importance of journalists, but about the looming threat to a society of a government which does not have the legal imperative to warn its citizens of the kind of threats highlighted in this book. In a healthy society citizens should not have to expend so much energy and resources in finding out about dangerous things that are either covered up or just not revealed.
Strongly recommended.
In “Backroom Deals in Our Backyards”, Miranda S. Spivack illuminates a toxic (pun fully intended) threat to both democratic principles and the well-being of communities across America: the increasing tendency towards secrecy on the part of governments and corporations.
Spivack argues (with convincing cases) that this information blackout is not just a bureaucratic nuisance, but a deliberate strategy used to maintain power and protect interests, often with devastating consequences for ordinary citizens.
The book is structured around the stories of a handful of people the author calls “accidental activists”. These individuals, with no prior experience in research or community organizing, found themselves facing hidden problems in their own backyards. They confronted “the unfair alliances” between governments and businesses that allowed negligence and collusion by concealing vital information.
The stories presented are varied, but all highlight the same basic problem: that of deliberate cover up and its real-life implications.
There is the case of Hoosick Falls, New York, where Michael Hickey, who became an accidental investigator due to his father's death from cancer, uncovered a cover-up by the local government about poisoned drinking water.
There is also Richard Boltuck's fight in Maryland which revealed state concealment and failure to act on accident data, fearing that the public might challenge or sue private contractors.
And then there is the investigation by Diane Cotter, which revealed how manufacturers and government agencies, in collaboration with the firefighters' union, allowed known risks to be concealed about toxic chemicals (such as PFAS) in firefighters' protective clothing.
The book does not stop at highlighting the problems. It offers a guide on how ordinary citizens can fight this bureaucracy of secrecy. These “accidental activists” learned to use tools such as public records access laws, build support networks (often through social media), seek legal help, communicate with journalists, and strategically lobby politicians and bureaucrats.
Despite difficulties, personal adversity, and powerful opponents, their efforts have been successful in exposing hidden risks and forcing action from governments and corporations.
The central idea that emerges from the sources is that transparency is not just an abstract idea, but a fundamental element of a functioning democracy that protects the health, safety and freedom of citizens. The book concludes with a strong call for vigilance, stressing that the public holds power, but must actively exercise it, demanding an end to secrecy and fighting for the principles of public notice, observation, participation and consultation.
Although not directly addressed by the author, I argue that the main takeaway of the book is that the well-known saying ‘democracy dies in darkness’ is not just about the importance of journalists, but about the looming threat to a society of a government which does not have the legal imperative to warn its citizens of the kind of threats highlighted in this book. In a healthy society citizens should not have to expend so much energy and resources in finding out about dangerous things that are either covered up or just not revealed.
Strongly recommended.
May 29, 2025
This smart and engaging collection of journalistic stories by a former Washington Post colleague highlights regular citizens who became "accidental activists" by insisting that state and local governments provide documents required under the law. Anyone who champions the public's right to know will cheer along with stories about a woman fighting to learn whether her husband's firefighter gear gave him cancer, a New York resident who revealed toxic drinking water, a Maryland man seeking info about a dangerous intersection near the local high school, and more. Deep reporting and tight, vivid writing.
November 9, 2025
Closer to a 3.5 stars but I rounded it up for the organization. It's basically 5 or 6 individual stories by chapter of people (average citizen, usually having nothing or little to do with oversee or any governmental aspect of their towns)who did something. What they did was refuse to accept something wrong that was just "it is what it is" by any authority onus for the situation.
It is accurate. Also it's difficult calling cause or effect to what exists when those others who regulate or direct don't want to acknowledge or even "see" to answer for the situation. There have been maybe 5 to 10 of these issues in my own life over the decades I have done the same. Often you do NOT get results or answers. You do fail, and these Spivack examples did not. Doing lots of online research IS a big plus now since at least the year 2000 for these numerous faults that the "complainers" will need to record and often HAVE TO OBSTAIN /get proofs to display by their own resources, funds, time etc. Layers of authority are often needed to be punctured to get to the one above it. Not easy when at least 3 cabals of hierarchy exist between the individual citizen and the answering "powers". Once in Indiana we had 4 levels and 2 counties to pursue a very needed building permit that also insured a necessary water restriction in order to protect a huge nesting environment. That's a trick to do, let me tell you. Lawyers or not- it often fails.
It's not a political book as to interpretation through political party. And the issues are ones you have most probably heard before but probably not for these locations. (Water quality, traffic lights/ signs etc. All kinds of horrid transgressions upon person or property or zoning or noise or cruel/negative fall outs can be added to any list for this category of fighting the "know betters".)
Well worth the read. Ironic in a way that I met up with this book right now. There are two of these issues going on exactly in my sphere currently. A needed traffic light (all the electronics and construction was done 2 to 3 years ago and it was never finished to operate) and vile corruption seated within a Federally run location/place/hierarchy (post office) which is blantantly washing checks and has felonies of theft and much else going on nearly daily. Do you know how hard it is to fire federal employees of the USA Postal Service or other government run entities (not only USA by any means)? I doubt you do. And it isn't only government but also any huge venue with influence, money, and power to sustain "status quo". And never more than in the last decades with the media being so blindly obnoxious to anything but "the line". Agenda first, facts/reality way back in the rear.
Regardless, it is also a detailed yet succinct read. You are very lucky in quite cozy places if you don't understand what fighting the giant truly becomes. Some of us surely do.
It is accurate. Also it's difficult calling cause or effect to what exists when those others who regulate or direct don't want to acknowledge or even "see" to answer for the situation. There have been maybe 5 to 10 of these issues in my own life over the decades I have done the same. Often you do NOT get results or answers. You do fail, and these Spivack examples did not. Doing lots of online research IS a big plus now since at least the year 2000 for these numerous faults that the "complainers" will need to record and often HAVE TO OBSTAIN /get proofs to display by their own resources, funds, time etc. Layers of authority are often needed to be punctured to get to the one above it. Not easy when at least 3 cabals of hierarchy exist between the individual citizen and the answering "powers". Once in Indiana we had 4 levels and 2 counties to pursue a very needed building permit that also insured a necessary water restriction in order to protect a huge nesting environment. That's a trick to do, let me tell you. Lawyers or not- it often fails.
It's not a political book as to interpretation through political party. And the issues are ones you have most probably heard before but probably not for these locations. (Water quality, traffic lights/ signs etc. All kinds of horrid transgressions upon person or property or zoning or noise or cruel/negative fall outs can be added to any list for this category of fighting the "know betters".)
Well worth the read. Ironic in a way that I met up with this book right now. There are two of these issues going on exactly in my sphere currently. A needed traffic light (all the electronics and construction was done 2 to 3 years ago and it was never finished to operate) and vile corruption seated within a Federally run location/place/hierarchy (post office) which is blantantly washing checks and has felonies of theft and much else going on nearly daily. Do you know how hard it is to fire federal employees of the USA Postal Service or other government run entities (not only USA by any means)? I doubt you do. And it isn't only government but also any huge venue with influence, money, and power to sustain "status quo". And never more than in the last decades with the media being so blindly obnoxious to anything but "the line". Agenda first, facts/reality way back in the rear.
Regardless, it is also a detailed yet succinct read. You are very lucky in quite cozy places if you don't understand what fighting the giant truly becomes. Some of us surely do.
June 26, 2025
This book is equal parts infuriating and inspiring: infuriating to see how our tax dollars and public agencies are used to shield private companies behind closed-door deals, and inspiring to witness how persistence and community action by regular people can expose the truth. It’s grimy to read about how public institutions protect private interests, but powerful to see everyday citizens persevere and make real change.
My favorite story was about the wife of a firefighter armed with only a high school education and years of relentless determination who was repeatedly shut out, dismissed, and muzzled as she searched for answers about why her husband and so many of his fellow firefighters were getting cancer. Over time, using social media, union networks, and local government outreach, she refused to back down to uncover the truth.
A great, accessible read with practical tips for investigating what’s happening in your own backyard. If you're trying to pry open your local, state, or federal government, this book is for you.
My favorite story was about the wife of a firefighter armed with only a high school education and years of relentless determination who was repeatedly shut out, dismissed, and muzzled as she searched for answers about why her husband and so many of his fellow firefighters were getting cancer. Over time, using social media, union networks, and local government outreach, she refused to back down to uncover the truth.
A great, accessible read with practical tips for investigating what’s happening in your own backyard. If you're trying to pry open your local, state, or federal government, this book is for you.
December 2, 2025
Holy hell, all the things you don't really know about are in this book. Seriously astonishing & also infuriating! I can't believe how much crap happens w/out our knowing. Simply mind-boggling. Of course, the gov't does everything possible to hide everything. Why would they actually want you to know what really happens? These stories are so eye-opening, all their hard work, uphill battles, defeat after defeat, but they keep going so they can make a difference for them & their communities. Amazing how they get to where they are & the outcomes of their fight. Very motivating once you realize the truth is on your side, eventually. SO yeah see what's what & how things are really happening.
October 15, 2025
A collection of accounts of what the author calls “accidental activists,” folks who were just living their lives until they found that some form of government coverup had had devastating effects on them and their families--and they pushed back.
December 25, 2025
Every "accidental activist" should read this book to get a jump on the forces against them. Everyone concerned about government secrecy in the name of protecting business interests or AI taking over things that actual people should have a hand in should read it too.
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