Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime; From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism

New York: W. W. Norton, 2004. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. xx, 730, [2] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Autographed Copy sticker on front of DJ. Sticker residue over bar code on back of DJ. Signed by the author on the title page. Contents include: Introduction--War Fever; Chapter I--The "Half War: with France: First First Amendment; Chapter II--The Civil War: Mr. Lincoln's First Amendment; Chapter III--World War I--"Clear and Present Danger"; Chapter IV--World War II: "Nothing to Fear"; Chapter V--The Cold War: The First Amendment in Extremis; Chapter VI--The Vietnam War: The Supreme Court's First Amendment; and Conclusion--The Secret of Liberty. This is an investigation into how free speech and other civil liberties have been compromised in America by war in six historical periods describes how presidents, Supreme Court justices, and resisters contributed to the administration of civil freedoms, in an account complemented by rare photographs, posters, and historical illustrations. Geoffrey R. Stone (born 1946) is an American law professor and noted First Amendment scholar. He was the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Stone completed a J.D. degree in 1971 at the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the Supreme Court in 1972-73. Stone has been a law professor at Chicago since 1973. Stone's book, Perilous Times received the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Award for the Human Rights Book of the Year, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize as the Best Book in History, the American Political Science Association's Kammerer Award for the Best Book of the Year, the Goldsmith Award from the Kennedy School of Harvard University for the Best Book of the Year in Public Affairs, and the Scribes Award for the Best Book of the Year in Law. Derived from a Kirkus review: It's one thing to cry "fire" in a crowded theater. It's another to cry "surrender" in the face of an enemy, as this broadly ranging survey of historical laws attests. There are many good reasons for suppressing certain speech in wartime, writes Stone: for instance, "a dissenter may disclose information that is useful to the enemy, such as invasion plans or the vulnerabilities of the navy". Yet laws regulating the expression of such sentiments in wartime tend to be made by Congress in a mood of war fever, with predictable results. Stone shows that Congress is all too easily persuaded to abandon American principles for political expediency. Thus the suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War, the promulgation of the Sedition Act after the Revolution, and the deployment of various police agencies during the Vietnam era. In this literate study, Stone addresses six major episodes that have gnawed away at the First Amendment, closing with an examination of our fear-ridden age and its erosive propensities. Most timely, and of wide interest to civil libertarians and students of legal history.