The global story of how big security took over our politics and private lives

Security has taken over our politics and our private lives, from the return of global warfare to the rise of Ring doorbells. Reporting from the frontlines of our paranoid world, anthropologist Ruben Andersson shows how security rose to power; why it doesn’t deliver on its promises, and in fact makes us significantly less safe; and how we’re all complicit in security's intrusions in our everyday lives – and can all resist.

This incredible work of narrative non-fiction is the culmination of decades of fearless research, as Andersson tracks police chiefs in the Swedish suburbs, embeds with migrants in Mexico, bunkers down with peacekeepers in Mali and dines with arms dealers in Paris. Around the world, our shared obsession with security is an act of retreat and a futile one, for we can’t secure our way to safety from behind high walls. It’s only in an open, shared society, with a strong social safety net and robust freedom of speech, where fear no longer controls us, that real security is found. Once we can understand how security has imprisoned us, we can start to break free.