Freedom at risk : secrecy, censorship, and repression in the 1980s /

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Bibliographic Details
Imprint:Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1988.
Description:xviii, 423 p. ; 24 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Reagan, Ronald
Reagan, Ronald.
Freedom of speech -- United States
Freedom of the press -- United States
Freedom of information -- United States
Censorship -- United States
Official secrets -- United States
National security -- United States -- Law and legislation.
Censorship.
Freedom of information.
Freedom of speech.
Freedom of the press.
National security -- Law and legislation.
Official secrets.
Politics and government
United States -- Politics and government -- 1981-1989
United States.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/899367
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Curry, Richard Orr
ISBN:0877225435 (alk. paper)
Notes:Includes index.
Bibliography: p. [387]-411.
Review by Choice Review

According to the editor, the conclusion that "individual liberties are secondary to the requirements of national security" has led to "a massive assault on civil liberties" on more than one occasion in US history, arguably beginning with the response of President Abraham Lincoln to the problems posed by the secession of the southern states from the Union, in 1861 (see R.S. Hirschfield's The Constitution and the Court, 1962). Whether the Reagan administration's assault upon such liberties "is unparalleled in American history in its scope and intensity" is at least arguable, but Curry has put together an important, frightening "indictment of the Reagan administration" in 25 articles by 29 authors. That the editor overstates his thesis (cf. 1861) and that the articles are uneven in quality does not lessen the importance of the collection, which apparently was inspired by a 1984 conference, "The Reagan Administration and the First Amendment," held at the University of Michigan Law School. Good bibliography; adequate index. For general readers, upper-level students, and faculty. -F. W. Neuber, Western Kentucky University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

As a critique of the Reagan administration's alarming efforts to do away with many civil liberties, this collection exposes an almost insidious and deliberate trend toward authoritarianism. Examples of secrecy, censorship, and repression abound in essays covering such subjects as drug testing, FBI and domestic surveillance, disinformation, the Sanctuary movement, libel cases, and Reagan's conservative appointments to the courts. Contributors include Nat Hentoff, Marvin Garbus, Margaret Randall, and others. Select bibliography; index. BS.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This collection of 25 essays constitutes a credible and alarming expose of the Reagan administration's disregard for First Amendment values and its aggressive attempts to institutionalize government secrecy, censorship and repression. Athan Theoharis reveals new practices in FBI domestic surveillance; Michael Ratner and Eleanor Stein examine ``The New Conspiracy Trail: Patterns in Federal Prosecution'' (which include preventive detention and anonymous juries); Mark Schapiro reports on the exclusion of certain foreign visitors on ideological grounds (``the excludables'' include writers Graham Greene, Farley Mowat, Gabriel Garcia Marquez); American-born Margaret Randall describes her battle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is attempting to deport her on the basis of her anti-government writings; Steven Burkholder analyzes the case of Samuel Loring Morrison, the first American convicted of espionage for leaking information to the press. There are several hard-hitting pieces on the Administration's dangerously narrow interpretation of the Freedom of Information Act and federal restrictions of the free flow of academic information and ideas. Curry is a history professor at the University of Connecticut. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Contributors to this solemn collection of 25 essays share the conviction that the Reagan administration has categorically and substantively weakened political liberties in the United States by institutionalizing the repressive powers of government, particularly in the national bureaucracy. Included are pieces by Thomas I. Emerson on the status of the First Amendment; Nat Hentoff on the dangers to individual privacy posed by random drug testing; and Diana Autin on the Reagan effort to gut the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, editor Curry provides in his introductory essay a timely overview of the major issues. Kenneth F. Kister, Pinellas Park P.L., Fla. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review


Review by Booklist Review


Review by Publisher's Weekly Review


Review by Library Journal Review