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.
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