The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control

by Jacob Siegel

Overview

We’re constantly told that disinformation is everywhere and that it’s ruining our democracy. But what if the war on disinformation itself is really just a weapon to squash any and all legitimate dissent?

The Information State is an incisive examination of how we reached the point where anything that contradicts the dominant narrative can be labeled dangerous disinformation. Tablet writer Jacob Siegel charts how a technological infrastructure built to make society more rational and progressive has steadily replaced democratic freedoms with systems of digital control. Instead of competing for voters’ support, the Information State uses censorship, mass surveillance, and algorithmic manipulation to shape public perceptions as it tries to engineer reality.

An alliance between government and tech companies formed to wage the war on terror has evolved into an unholy new kind of technocratic state and turned against America’s own citizens. In short, the information war came home and completely overtook American politics during the hyperpolarization of the Trump era and the isolation of the Covid pandemic. The Information State is an urgent, necessary book that sounds the alarm on where society is headed in the age of AI if we don’t relearn how to think for ourselves and ask searching questions about whether information can ever be a substitute for truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250363138
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	03/24/2026
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336

About the Author

Jacob Siegel is a contributing editor at Tablet. He is a US Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He edited and contributed to Fire and Forget: Short Stories from the Long War, the first anthology of fiction by veterans of the global war on terror. Since 2013, he has worked as a journalist and essayist covering war, digital technology, and the convulsions in the American scene.

Editorial Reviews

"In The Information State, Jacob Siegel shows how the emancipatory promise of the Internet has given way to the chilling reality of government by algorithm and the emergence of a “digital leviathan” that threatens liberty and democracy alike."

—Michael Lind, author of The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite

"Jacob Siegel’s book is essential reading if you want to understand the evolution and trajectory not just of information, but our societies. He joins the likes of pioneers like Daniel Bell and Jaron Lanier in dissecting the origins of the information state and its likely future. Dangerous, revealing and necessary reading."

—Joel Kotkin, author of The New Geography: How the Digital Revolution Is Reshaping the American Landscape

From the Publisher