The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession
Our Expert Review
Ken Alder's "The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession" stands as the definitive account of the polygraph's invention and cultural impact in America. As a professional polygraph examination service, we recognize this work as essential reading for understanding the complex historical foundations of our field.
Alder, a distinguished historian at Northwestern University and winner of multiple prestigious awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship, brings exceptional scholarly rigor to this narrative. The book traces the polygraph's development from the 1920s through the Cold War era, focusing on the fascinating personalities behind the machine: John Larson, America's first cop with a doctorate and a forensic scientist of restless integrity, and Leonarde Keeler, a high school-age enthusiast with considerable charm but less integrity.
Alder employs a two-track approach, examining both the lives of the polygraph's creators and American society's peculiar receptivity to a device that has never passed scientific muster. The author skillfully reveals how Larson obsessed about creating an objective protocol for the polygraph, while Keeler developed interrogation techniques that exploited the subject's anxiety about the machine. Over time, Keeler's practicality won over business, law enforcement, and the national security complex, while Larson's pursuit of perfection made him an increasingly eccentric figure.
What makes this book particularly valuable for polygraph professionals is its unflinching examination of the machine's limitations. As Alder notes, "The lie detector cannot be killed by science, because it is not born of science". The work demonstrates how the device tells us more about our beliefs than our deeds, measuring not deception so much as feelings of guilt or shame. This insight remains crucial for contemporary practitioners who must understand the psychological dynamics at play during examinations.
The result is a fluent tale, personal yet pensive, well researched yet far from stuffy. Alder's narrative style brings these historical figures to life while maintaining scholarly objectivity. The narrative remains intense because of the vividness of the characters that Alder casts from newspaper articles and countless manuscripts discovered in public archives and private collections.
One limitation is that a meticulous description of the different technical realizations of the polygraph is conspicuously absent in Alder's narrative. Technical practitioners may find themselves wanting more detailed analysis of the mechanical aspects. However, this focus on cultural and personal history rather than technical specifications serves the book's broader purpose of explaining why America uniquely embraced lie detection technology.
All of this was, and remains, chiefly an American phenomenon; no other country embraced the lie detector to the extent that it was welcomed in the United States. This cultural analysis provides invaluable context for understanding the polygraph's role in American criminal justice, employment screening, and national security.
Key Takeaways
- The polygraph tells us more about our beliefs than our deeds, measuring feelings of guilt or shame rather than actual deception
- The lie detector cannot be killed by science because it is not born of science - its power lies in cultural belief rather than scientific validity
- America uniquely embraced lie detection technology to an extent unmatched by any other country
- The lie detector depends on what medical science has dismissively termed the 'placebo effect' - belief in the machine is essential to its function
- Polygraphs never resolved the tension between mechanical objectivity and operator skill - interpretation remains subjective despite technological presentation
- The fundamental conflict between Larson's scientific rigor and Keeler's commercial pragmatism shaped the polygraph's development
- Early polygraph cases revealed persistent ambiguities and shortcomings that continue to plague automated lie detection
- Persuading Americans of the machine's potency was itself a prerequisite for the machine's success
- The polygraph was never really detecting lies but rather emotions of guilt, shame, and belief in the machine's efficacy
- Over the 20th century, the lie detector became integral to America's justice system, employment markets, and national security apparatus
What’s Inside
This opening chapter establishes the Berkeley origins of the polygraph under police chief August Vollmer. It sets the stage for the scientific policing movement that would give birth to lie detection technology.
Covers Larson's initial foray, an attempt to solve thefts at a local sorority house, which was immediately beset with ambiguities and shortcomings that have since plagued automated lie detection. Shows how early cases revealed the machine's limitations.
Explores the integration of scientific methods into police work and how the polygraph fit into broader reform movements in American law enforcement during the early 20th century.
Examines the philosophical and psychological underpinnings of lie detection, exploring why Americans believed a machine could peer into human consciousness and reveal truth.
Details the working relationship and growing tensions between Larson and Keeler as they developed and promoted their invention, foreshadowing later conflicts.
Traces how the polygraph moved from laboratory settings into practical applications in police work and criminal investigation.
Named after Dashiell Hammett's fictional corrupt city, this chapter explores how the polygraph was deployed in Chicago, America's crime capital, to combat corruption and vice.
Examines the tension between whether lie-detecting properties lay in the 'mechanical objectivity' of the device or the skill of the operator. This fundamental ambiguity continues to plague the field.
Chronicles the polygraph's expansion and the personal and professional strains between its creators as operations shifted to Chicago, the early 20th century capital of crime and criminology.
Explores how Chicago's abundant criminal cases provided a testing ground for polygraph techniques and the development of interrogation methods.
Details the competition between different polygraph designs and methodologies as the technology evolved and commercialized.
Examines the attempts to validate polygraph accuracy through scientific testing and the persistent problems with establishing reliability.
Follows the polygraph's expansion into new applications beyond criminal investigation, including employment screening and security clearances.
Explores how the polygraph claimed scientific legitimacy while remaining dependent on individual interpretation and operator skill.
Examines the personal costs of polygraph development, including the deteriorating relationship between Larson and Keeler and the impact on their personal lives.
Analyzes why the polygraph became uniquely embedded in American culture and institutions, unlike in other countries.
Covers the work of William Moulton Marston, who developed alternative approaches to lie detection and later created the Wonder Woman comic character.
Examines the polygraph's role during the atomic age and early Cold War, when security concerns heightened interest in lie detection technology.
Details the use of polygraphs in anti-communist investigations and loyalty screenings during the McCarthy era and Cold War.
Explores how the polygraph was positioned as a technological solution to fundamental human problems of trust and deception.
Concludes with Larson going mad trying to destroy the Frankenstein's monster he had created, while the polygraph persisted despite scientific criticism.
Who Should Read This
This book serves multiple audiences within the polygraph and legal communities. **Polygraph examiners** will gain crucial historical perspective on their profession's foundations and limitations. Understanding how Larson obsessed about creating objective protocols while Keeler developed interrogation techniques exploiting subject anxiety provides insight into contemporary examination methods. The book's exploration of how polygraphs detect emotions of guilt and shame rather than lies per se is essential for practitioners to understand the psychological dynamics of their work. **Attorneys** benefit from the book's comprehensive analysis of why scientists repudiated the technique and judges banned its results from criminal trials. The historical context of legal challenges helps lawyers understand current admissibility standards and provides ammunition for challenging polygraph evidence. The book's documentation of investigative techniques like calling suspects to inform them they failed tests (true or not) to elicit confessions reveals potential due process violations. **Researchers and academics** will appreciate Alder's rigorous methodology and use of newspaper articles and manuscripts discovered in public archives and private collections. The work demonstrates how to study the intersection of technology, culture, and belief systems. The fluent narrative style shows how academic history can cross over to attract general readers. **General public** readers gain understanding of why America uniquely embraced this technology. The polygraph operated as a 'magnifying mirror held up to America's secret fears and desires,' reflecting the techno-scientific way democratic culture dealt with deception. The book explains persistent cultural faith in technological solutions to human problems of trust and verification.
About the Author
Ken Alder holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University (1991) and studies the transnational history of science and technology in the context of social and political change. He served as chair of the History Department at Northwestern University from 2014 to 2017 and is the founding director of Northwestern's science studies program, known as Science in Human Culture. Alder is the Milton H. Wilson Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University.
His first book, Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815 (Princeton, 1997; 2nd ed., Chicago, 2010), won the 1998 Edelstein Prize from the Society of the History of Technology. His second book, The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World (The Free Press, 2002), examined the origins of the metric system and has been translated into 12 languages, winning three "best book" prizes: the Davis Prize (History of Science Society), the Dingle Prize (British Society for the History of Science), and the Kagan Prize (The Historical Society).
For his work Alder has been granted fellowships from the NEH/Newberry (1997-98), the American Bar Foundation (2001-02), the National Science Foundation (2008-09), and the Guggenheim Foundation (2010-11), and the Institute for Advanced Study (2021-22). He has been a visiting faculty at NYU, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and the Ecole des Mines, Paris, and has served on the executive council of the History of Science Society and the Society for the History of Technology. In 2012 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is also a novelist, and the author of The White Bus (St. Martin's Press, 1987).
Publication History
The first edition was published by Free Press on March 6, 2007, as a hardcover with 352 pages and ISBN 0743259882. The original hardcover price was $27.00. A paperback edition was published in 2009 by University of Nebraska Press (Bison Books) with 368 pages and ISBN 9780803224599. The book is also available as an ebook through Simon & Schuster. The paperback edition was published by Bison Books in 2009. The work has maintained consistent availability across formats since its initial publication, reflecting sustained academic and popular interest in the subject matter.
How to Cite This Book
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