| Perilous Times: Free Speech In Wartime : From The Sedition Act Of 1798 To The War On Terrorism
By Geoffrey R. Stone
ISBN: 9780393058802
Published: 2004
Number of Pages: 800
Edition: 1st
Binding: Hardcover |
Pricing & Availability:Additional Details:
Product Type: Book
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Description: By Geoffrey R. Stone's estimate, America has lived up to the ideals encapsulated in the First Amendment about 80 percent of the time over the course of its history. Perilous Times's focuses is on the remaining 20 percent, when, during war or civil strife, the better instincts of the public and its leaders have been drowned out by a certain kind of repressive hysteria. Stone, the former dean of law provost at the University of Chicago, identifies six periods of widespread free-speech repression, dating back to the administration of the nation's second president, John Adams, and continuing through the Vietnam era. In between, two of history's greatest presidents, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, were involved in constitutionally questionable efforts to suppress dissent. Stone examines these pivotal episodes with a lawyer's attention to detail and precedence and a writer's focus on character and story structure. From Adams's secretary of state, the "grim-faced and single-minded" Timothy Pickering (who scanned the papers daily looking for seditious language) through John Ashcroft on one side, and the cheeky late-18th-century congressman Matthew Lyon and the Yippies of the 1960s on the other, there are plenty of characters enlivening these pages. Given its publication during the War on Terror, Stone's work feels particularly timely and vital. He devotes only a few pages to the post-9/11 environment, crediting George W. Bush for his refusal to scapegoat Muslims in the immediate aftermath of the attack, but castigating his administration for "opportunistic and excessive" actions centering around the Patriot Act. One wonders if Stone will some day be forced to update Perilous Times with a full chapter on the early 21st century. --Steven Stolder |
Library of Congress Control Number
- LC control Number:
2004017871 - LC control Number:
2004017871International Standard Book Number:
0393058808:
0393058808 (hardcover)Level of Bibliographic Control and Coding Detail:
COUTTSGeographic Area Code:
n-us---Library of Congress Call Number
- Classification number:
JC - Classification number:
JC591 - Item number:
.S76 2004Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- Edition number:
22:
4/3/0973 - Classification number:
323. - Classification number:
323.44/3/0973Main Entry - Personal Name
- Personal name:
Stone, Geoffrey R - Personal name:
Stone, Geoffrey R.Title Statement
- Title:
Perilous times : - Remainder of title:
free speech in wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the war on terrorism / - Statement of responsibility, etc.:
Geoffrey R. Stone - Statement of responsibility, etc.:
Geoffrey R. Stone.Edition Statement:
1st ed:
1st ed.Publication, Distribution, etc. (Imprint)
- Place of publication, distribution, etc.:
New York : - Place of publication, distribution, etc.:
New York, NY : - Name of publisher, distribution, etc.:
W.W. Norton & Co., - Date of publication, distribution, etc.:
2004. - Date of publication, distribution, etc.:
c2004 - Date of publication, distribution, etc.:
c2004.Projected Publication Date:
0410Physical Description
- Extent:
xx, 730 p. - Extent:
xx, 730 p. : - Other physical details:
ill. ; - Other physical details:
ill., ports. ; - Dimensions:
24 cm. - Dimensions:
25 cm - Dimensions:
25 cm.Bibliography, etc. Note
- Bibliography:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-691) and index - Bibliography:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-691) and index. - Bibliography:
Includes bibliographical references and index.Formatted Contents Note:
War fever -- The "half war" with France : the first First Amendment -- The Civil War : Mr. Lincoln's first amendment -- World War I : "clear and present danger"? -- World War II : "nothing to fear"? -- The Cold War : the first amendment in extremis -- The Vietnam War : the Supreme Court's first amendment -- The secret of liberty.Subject Added Entry - Topical Term
- Source of heading or term:
bclaw - Topical term or geographic name entry element:
Freedom of speech - Topical term or geographic name entry element:
History - General subdivision:
History - General subdivision:
History. - Geographic subdivision:
United States