While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army, in 2010 Chelsea Manning disclosed more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic records that she smuggled out on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts relating 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 behind the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.