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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 973 EAN: 9780393327458 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0393327450 Label: W. W. Norton Manufacturer: W. W. Norton Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 800 Publication Date: October 10, 2005 Publisher: W. W. Norton Studio: W. W. Norton Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: 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 Product Description: "A must-read for all who treasure the First Amendment."—Alan M. Dershowitz, Boston Globe Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times incisively investigates how the First Amendment and other civil liberties have been compromised in America during wartime. Stone delineates the consistent suppression of free speech in six historical periods from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the Vietnam War, and ends with a coda that examines the state of civil liberties in the Bush era. Full of fresh legal and historical insight, Perilous Times magisterially presents a dramatic cast of characters who influenced the course of history over a two-hundred-year period: from the presidents—Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Nixon—to the Supreme Court justices—Taney, Holmes, Brandeis, Black, and Warren—to the resisters—Clement Vallandingham, Emma Goldman, Fred Korematsu, and David Dellinger. Filled with dozens of rare photographs, posters, and historical illustrations, Perilous Times is resonant in its call for a new approach in our response to grave crises. Hailed as "the most important book of its kind since Zechariah Chafee Jr. first published his heralded Freedom of Speech in 1920," Perilous Times, in the words of Studs Terkel, is "must reading for every citizen interested in something called the First Amendment." Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times wrote that Perilous Times is "an important, indeed necessary book on freedom indispensable…to the discovery and spread of political truth," and Bob Woodward proclaimed Perilous Times to be "a lively, masterful history—and reminder—of the essential role of the First Amendment during the stresses of war." Perilous Times incisively investigates the First Amendment in wartime like no previous book and, according to Elena Kagan, the dean of Harvard Law School, "promises to redefine the national debate on civil liberties and free speech." Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; A New York Times Notable Book, a Philadelphia Inquirer Top 10 Book, a Washington Post Book World Rave, a Los Angeles Times Best Book, and a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2004. 63 illustrations. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - outstanding resourcethe book is, of course, on the topic of article 1 free speech during perilous times. the author provides the reader with an exhaustive review of the literature, extensive end notes, detailed history of six conflicts that resulted in legal conflicts surrounding free speech. the author details executive orders, congressional legislation or mandates, and reviews by the courts and supreme court in efforts to execute the functioning of the government while imposing limitations on free speech. i found ... Read More Rating: - A Masterful History of First Amendment Freedoms, and their suppression in time of war~Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime: From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism~ is an erudite constitutional analysis of First Amendment freedoms to speech and assembly. Throughout American history, free speech and freedom of assembly has been adversely affected by rationalized wartime suppressions in the name of security. Justice Robert Jackson in the mid-20th century declared, "It is easy, by giving way to passion, intolerance, and suspicions of wartime, to reduce our liberties to ... Read More Rating: - Speech in WartimeGeoffrey Stone's Perilous Times is a great book for understanding how free speech is affected during times of war and other periods of unrest. Specifically, Stone looks at episodes in American history including the Sedition Act of 1798, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Red Scare and the Cold War, the Vietnam-Watergate era, and very briefly on the war against terrorism. This is an excellent book in my opinion and written in an eminently readable and engaging style. These episodes ... Read More Rating:  - bookPerilous times is an in depth review of the repression of free speech and assembly and political affiliation from unmasking Lincolns assumed good intentions, the debauchery of the cold war and mccarthy era until the consolodation of views by the media today. dense read. good to smarten up and learn the truth. Rating: - Cooler heads did prevail....As recent history attests to, some people act irrationally when under conditions of stress, and frequently do not hesitate to deny others basic human rights or even react violently. This kind of behavior does not occur under normal conditions of life, so the trick is get back into mental equilibrium as soon as possible after the shocks have occurred. The time needed to do this varies considerably between individuals, and the individuals who are having trouble calming themselves put undue burdens on ... Read More |
