Powerful systems are fragile…when ordinary people refuse to comply.

At a time when principled resistance in the facing of rising authoritarianism is more important than ever, the Annotated Simple Sabotage Field Manual provides a portable, contextualized version of one of the most important government documents in our history.

Declassified by the CIA in 2008, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual was created by the OSS in 1944 to teach everyday people how to disrupt authoritarian regimes through inefficiency, miscommunication, and the subtle art of bureaucratic chaos. By advising citizens to delay, disrupt, and disorganize through tactics as wide-ranging as sowing confusion in meetings to derailing production lines, the nameless federal employees who wrote this primer to quiet resistance captured the power of intentional noncompliance.

This edition republishes the original text with selected annotations that situate its tactics in historical context while also inviting readers to consider their unsettling resonance (and relevance) in an era of rising authoritarianism.

In an age when state control is on the rise, Annotated Simple Sabotage Field Manual reminds us that resistance doesn’t always have to be loud or violent—it can be as subtle as misdirection and inefficiency. With its historical insights and modern relevance, this historic handbook is a powerful guide to quiet disruption, showing that even small acts of noncompliance can topple even the most entrenched powers.