Eight or more years of growing government secrecy has badly hurt the United States, according to an article in the Jan./Feb. 2009 Columbia Journalism Review.

The article, by Clint Hendler, enumerates just some of the many kinds of information the Bush administration veiled with secrecy and argues that disclosure of many is essential for the welfare of a democratic nation. Undoing the secrecy, Hendler argues, will not be easy.

• "What We Didn't Know Has Hurt Us," [2] Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2009, by Clint Hendler.