Historical & Cultural Context

Pre-1980s
The stories of whistleblower's prior to the 1980s revolved largely around the United States' government and its involvement in wars. The furthest recorded case goes back to the 1700s and the US's fight for independence against Great Britain. During the Revolutionary War, Samuel Shaw and a group of US soldiers reported their Commodore Esek Hopkins for abusing British prisoners of war. Years later in 1934, Smedley Butler also stood for American justice when a group of wealthy pro-fascists attempted to capture President Roosevelt and reinstate the gold standard. Not all whistleblower cases, however, are necessarily full of justness and good intention. During the Great Depression, Herbert Yardley was in need of money and wrote a book called 'The American Black Chamber', detailing the illegal surveillance he and a secret group of cryptologists did for the State Department in New York City following WWI.

Outside of the United States, during WWII, Polish and German whistleblowers, Jan Karski and Herbert Van Bose fought for good in the dire and cruel period of time of the Holocaust. Working the chief of press for a chancellor in the Nazi Party, Van Bose leaked information regarding the atrocities committed by the German government to the world. He was later killed for his just intentions. While in Poland, Jan Karski did the same by sneaking into concentration camps and reporting his findings back to officials. Outside of the United States and war, however, Edmund Dene Morel helped fight against slavery and Belgian King Leopold II's brutal rule in the Congo Free State when he began the Congo Reform Association (CRA) in 1904 after noticing the cruel working conditions Congo natives endured while working in ivory and rubber manufacturing.

1980s-2000s
Whistleblowers during the 1980s-2000s were reporting on a few different things, including fraud happening in private companies, negligence in nuclear plants, and other findings of harmful behaviors that could negatively impact humans. Blowing the whistle on safety concerns in nuclear power plants seem to be especially prevalent, as the Cold War is still going on during this time. Tensions are rising and citizens are fearful of what might happen if we were to continue developing nuclear weapons. Fear of the repercussions which might occur if something were to happen with negligence in power plants, or in the case of Myron Mehlman, human health concerns.

Cases of whistleblowers issuing complaints during this time period reflects an evolution happening within society. Humans are now at a point where scientifically we are more advanced, and are able to conduct research and release new medicines and technologies. As these new scientific discoveries are being released, it is inevitable that some of the products or processes are broken or pose a threat to humans. Whistleblowers are the people brave enough to see and report on the issues that might harm others. Also during this time period whistleblower cases result in new laws being made (there weren't a lot before this time), such as Gravitt's case resulting in an amendment to the False Claims Act.

2000s-Present
Especially after the tragedy of 9/11, whistleblowers largely were reporting issues in the United State government's response, especially the rise of unconstitutional espionage and the lack of accountability when intelligence agencies took it a step too far. Some notable whistleblowers were Mark Klein, who revealed that AT&T was cooperating with the National Security Agency to help spy on U.S. citizens, Chelsea Manning, who leaked classified documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and perhaps most famously Edward Snowden, who blew the whistle on the NSA's programs to spy on the personal lives of all U.S. and many international individuals. Also of note is Coleen Rowley, a former special agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who reported mishandling of intelligence regarding 9/11 prior to the attacks.

Outside of the United States, Kathryn Bolkovac is famous for uncovering and reporting sex trafficking in Bosnia and Herzegovina that the U.N. was protecting and even enabling. More recently, Li Wenliang, a doctor at Wuhan Central Hospital, warned of a possible outbreak of the COVID-19 disease via social media before he was silenced by the Chinese government. He eventually died from the disease while the disease spread as he had predicted.