"The book covers early lie detectors and their inventors from the 1860s to the 1920s, their use by police and other agencies in the 1930s and their role in Cold War America in the 1940s and 1950s. It then discusses the 1960s, the PSE (a new take on the old polygraph), reliance by private businesses on the polygraph in the 1970s, and the increasing reluctance of the government to use it in the 1980s. A chapter on new ideas and uses from 1990 to 2002 concludes the book. Notes, bibliography, index."--Jacket.