An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.
While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.
The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.
In README.txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights …
An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.
While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.
The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.
In README.txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.
Des mémoires poignantes, qui m'ont un peu décontenancées car je m'attendais à ce que ce livre témoigne davantage des révélations faites par Chelsea (l'ayant découvert au sein de la catégorie Activisme du "Rayon numérique"), plutôt que toutes les épreuves qu'elle a traversé. Une lecture bien plus instructive, donc, sur l'acceptation, l'affirmation de soi et sur la transidentité, que sur les exactions commises par les États-Unis.
Quoi qu'il en soit, c'était une lecture prenante et passionnante.
warts-and-all biography of a complicated figure, must-read for any 90s kid
4 stars
A clear-eyed, sometimes painfully straightforward accounting of Chealsea Mannings life.
Although everyone rewrites their past, you can feel the goal was to not hagiographise but rather an honest-as-possible accounting of the impacts of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the war on terror, and Mannings disillusion with the war.
I think these kind of books often come off badly. They feel self serving, they feel like history rewriting, they feel, well, bad. This was none of that. It felt earnest and honest, the thrashing around of growing up. I highly recommend it.
