When Edward Snowden leaked the documents that tipped off the world about the United States government's secretive, wide-scale surveillance practices, he created division across the country.

Many hailed the former National Security Agency analyst as a whistle-blower for revealing the ethically questionable gathering of billions of phone and Internet records. Others called him a traitor for leaking information about a program that supposedly would help capture terrorists and prevent future attacks.

But Michael Gurnow, author of "The Edward Snowden Affair: Exposing the Politics and Media Behind the NSA Scandal," said he's not interested in putting a label on Snowden. His interest lies in the debates created by Snowden's actions and how the unfolding story has been portrayed by the media. The Jackson author, a former English instructor at Southeast Missouri State University and trail maintenance coordinator at Trail of Tears State Park, said he felt a "moral obligation" to write the book.

"I have a background in philosophy, dealing primarily in the field of ethics. So the topic itself piqued my interest because we are dealing with ethics on several, several levels," he said.

He became interested after he came across a CNN article that seemed "a little bit off." It was enough to encourage Gurnow to begin researching Snowden and the NSA scandal.

"I realized there was a very intriguing story and it wound up being a book-length story in the end," Gurnow said.

The research started "snowballing," he said, as he struggled to find reliable and thorough information about a man and an agency that had gone to great lengths to stay hidden. Gurnow said he has more than 100 pages of resources and almost 1,000 citations in the book, which only equal a fraction of the total number of articles and reports he read throughout his "intense" research.

While it may seem strange to some that a man in a small Missouri town wrote a book on an affair that has touched nearly all corners of the globe, he said that fact played a part in getting the book published.

"My publisher found it intriguing -- there's three books on this topic and I'm the only [author] that's living in America at the time," Gurnow said. "He said, 'It's fascinating that you're right smack in the middle of America doing this. It's a great representation.'"

Those who read the book may be surprised to learn the extent of how pervasive government surveillance is, according to Gurnow, who made a stop at Hastings Entertainment in Cape Girardeau on Saturday afternoon to sign copies of the book. After reading the section on surveillance and smartphones, he said one early reviewer of the book covered the camera on his phone with a sticker.

"It will alarm a lot of people," Gurnow said.

Gurnow has plans for two more books in the future, but he said they will cover more lighthearted topics.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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