History of the Lie Detector - Deception Detection, Crime Solving, Interrogation Rooms, and the Little Machine That Asked Too Many Questions #1006091

History of the Lie Detector takes a strange little machine and follows it into some of the most fascinating rooms in modern history: police stations, interrogation rooms, courtrooms, government offices, and high-stakes investigations.
Before the polygraph became famous, people had already been searching for ways to catch liars. The basic idea was irresistible: if deception could make the body react, perhaps a machine could record those reactions and expose the truth.

But the machine raised almost as many questions as it promised to answer.
How did early investigators attempt to measure deception? Who developed the technologies that eventually became associated with the modern polygraph? Why did police departments embrace the test? How did interrogation practices shape its reputation? And why has the lie detector remained controversial for generations?
This book explores the history of polygraph testing, deception detection, criminal investigation, interrogation, espionage, employment screening, and courtroom evidence through publicly documented information.

Along the way, readers encounter the scientists and investigators who helped develop the technology, the dramatic cases that made lie detection famous, and the critics who questioned whether physiological reactions could really reveal dishonesty.
The result is a revealing history of a machine built around one enormous human obsession:
How do you know when someone is lying?
The answer turned out to be far more complicated than simply watching a needle move.