"A masterpiece of constitutional history, Perilous Times promises to redefine the national debate on civil liberties and free speech."—Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School
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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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From The New Yorker
Stone's history examines America's tendency in wartime to compromise First Amendment rights in the name of national security. During the Civil War, a former congressman, Clement Vallandigham, was imprisoned and nearly executed for objecting to the conflict as "wicked, cruel, and unnecessary" in the First World War, the anarchist Mollie Steimer was sentenced to fifteen years for calling capitalism the "only one enemy of the workers of the world." Each of these measures seemed essential to victory at the time; later, however, pardons were issued. We may one day feel the same about Guantánamo and the Patriot Act, but not all wrongs are immediately remedied. In 1971, Attorney General John Mitchell tried to use the contentious Espionage Act of 1917 (which, largely forgotten, had never been revoked) to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers. It is still law today.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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41 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In this marvelously readable new work by celebrated academic Geoffrey R. Stone, the author offers up for our reading pleasure a wonderfully pensive, comprehensive and timely contextual look at one of the key elements in the ongoing calculus of a free society; the right to free speech as embodied in the First Amendment. Opening by collaring Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous dictum regarding the social, economic and political wisdom in allowing all sorts and manners of thoughts and premises to freely compete in the marketplace of ideas, Professor Stone delivers a wonderful and sometimes whimsical history of just how critical such allowances of civil liberties are in guaranteeing the continuance of the republic. In so doing, he allows us a more meaningful window through which we can view the current battle-lines organized around civil rights issues emanating from concern over the Patriot Act and other infringements on personal liberties.
His anecdotes are telling, and often surprising, as when one learns that Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of the writ of habeas corpus several times during his embattled administration, or how the government tried groups of dissidents in the aftermath of World War One (including famous intellectuals such as Eugene Debs and the later sixties countercultural "back-to-the land" icon Scott Nearing) for treason for their free speech critical of the war effort. In sum, this book provides the reader with a marvelous compendium tracing the history of the continuing struggle and tension between the need for public order, on the one hand, and the right of individuals and groups to speak their minds without fear of official or unofficial consequences from the government at large. Surely, events such as the involuntary segregation and detainment of Japanese Americans during the course of WWII is among the most grievous of the episodes related herein, yet other, later efforts such as the actions of the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee (or HUAC) originally established by Harry Truman to invoke official investigation of the civil activities of ordinary Americans as a kind of litmus loyalty test are even more egregious transgressions of the ways in which government can trample over the rights and prerogatives of its citizenry.
He takes great pains to help the reader to understand that most usually such blatant transgressions on individual rights to free speech and public assembly take place during times of great national danger, such as a state of warfare. In this sense, the invocation of such a state of war itself may signal the likelihood of such efforts by the state to limit or muzzle efforts by people to speak their mind and criticize the actions of the government. Thus, we are reminded that one most often describes the period of the late 1940s until the late 1980s as the time of the so-called `Cold War". Then too, in more contemporary terms, the presumptuous attachment and use of the term "War On Terror" and President Bush's strident use of that term to justify a whole range of governmental restrictions and proscriptions ranging from no-notice `sneak & peek' searches of individual homes or arrest and detainment without preference of charges (as was done for more than two years to at least two Americans) may not be entirely coincidental.
Yet it would both a misrepresentation of the book and its arguments as well as a disservice to readers to not mention that Professor Stone believes that many of the historical cases of abuse of the First Amendment that he cites are much less likely today, for a variety of reasons. First, as he takes pain to point out, the kinds of "major restrictions of civil liberties of the past would be less thinkable today", and he adds that both in terms of the evolution of the way the Constitution itself has been interpreted, especially by the U. S Supreme Court, and in the way our very culture views such basic civil liberties, we have indeed made remarkable progress. Professor Stones cites the ways in which the decisions regarding the disposition of infamous Pentagon Papers that disallowed the government's argument for restraint on the `Fourth Estate" (the press) since the Solicitor General had not proven such denial of access was warranted. Indeed, during the sixties era a number of such decisions clarifying the enormous latitudes and allowances that must be made by the government to avoid such transgressions on the civil liberties of its citizens.
If I were to offer any complaint or constructive criticism of the book, it is that it does not offer as much satisfaction regarding the author focusing his considerable intellectual prowess in considering more contemporary issues relating to the efforts by the current administration to stifle dissent and to drop a veil of secrecy over the machinations of the Federal Government in postures such as that taken by Vice-President Cheney in blocking public access to the list of attendees or the minutes of his meeting to determine national energy policy in early 2001. Yet one cannot not deny that despite its avoidance of such critically important contemporaneous events as are occurring even as we write, that this new book by Professor Stone is a truly valuable, worthwhile, and extremely readable book that will both entertain and edify anyone fortunate enough to open its pages. It is sure to be a great gift for Christmas, and one I can highly recommend. Enjoy!
His anecdotes are telling, and often surprising, as when one learns that Abraham Lincoln suspended the right of the writ of habeas corpus several times during his embattled administration, or how the government tried groups of dissidents in the aftermath of World War One (including famous intellectuals such as Eugene Debs and the later sixties countercultural "back-to-the land" icon Scott Nearing) for treason for their free speech critical of the war effort. In sum, this book provides the reader with a marvelous compendium tracing the history of the continuing struggle and tension between the need for public order, on the one hand, and the right of individuals and groups to speak their minds without fear of official or unofficial consequences from the government at large. Surely, events such as the involuntary segregation and detainment of Japanese Americans during the course of WWII is among the most grievous of the episodes related herein, yet other, later efforts such as the actions of the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee (or HUAC) originally established by Harry Truman to invoke official investigation of the civil activities of ordinary Americans as a kind of litmus loyalty test are even more egregious transgressions of the ways in which government can trample over the rights and prerogatives of its citizenry.
He takes great pains to help the reader to understand that most usually such blatant transgressions on individual rights to free speech and public assembly take place during times of great national danger, such as a state of warfare. In this sense, the invocation of such a state of war itself may signal the likelihood of such efforts by the state to limit or muzzle efforts by people to speak their mind and criticize the actions of the government. Thus, we are reminded that one most often describes the period of the late 1940s until the late 1980s as the time of the so-called `Cold War". Then too, in more contemporary terms, the presumptuous attachment and use of the term "War On Terror" and President Bush's strident use of that term to justify a whole range of governmental restrictions and proscriptions ranging from no-notice `sneak & peek' searches of individual homes or arrest and detainment without preference of charges (as was done for more than two years to at least two Americans) may not be entirely coincidental.
Yet it would both a misrepresentation of the book and its arguments as well as a disservice to readers to not mention that Professor Stone believes that many of the historical cases of abuse of the First Amendment that he cites are much less likely today, for a variety of reasons. First, as he takes pain to point out, the kinds of "major restrictions of civil liberties of the past would be less thinkable today", and he adds that both in terms of the evolution of the way the Constitution itself has been interpreted, especially by the U. S Supreme Court, and in the way our very culture views such basic civil liberties, we have indeed made remarkable progress. Professor Stones cites the ways in which the decisions regarding the disposition of infamous Pentagon Papers that disallowed the government's argument for restraint on the `Fourth Estate" (the press) since the Solicitor General had not proven such denial of access was warranted. Indeed, during the sixties era a number of such decisions clarifying the enormous latitudes and allowances that must be made by the government to avoid such transgressions on the civil liberties of its citizens.
If I were to offer any complaint or constructive criticism of the book, it is that it does not offer as much satisfaction regarding the author focusing his considerable intellectual prowess in considering more contemporary issues relating to the efforts by the current administration to stifle dissent and to drop a veil of secrecy over the machinations of the Federal Government in postures such as that taken by Vice-President Cheney in blocking public access to the list of attendees or the minutes of his meeting to determine national energy policy in early 2001. Yet one cannot not deny that despite its avoidance of such critically important contemporaneous events as are occurring even as we write, that this new book by Professor Stone is a truly valuable, worthwhile, and extremely readable book that will both entertain and edify anyone fortunate enough to open its pages. It is sure to be a great gift for Christmas, and one I can highly recommend. Enjoy!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Throughout Geoffrey Stone's engrossing examination of free speech during times of war, two crucial conclusions emerge. Both drive from an explanation articulated by Justice Louis in 1927: "fear breeds repression" and "courage is the secret of liberty." Exquisitely researched, gracefully written and forcefully argued, "Perilous Times" is a compelling exploration of the First Amendment in wartime. Professor Stone, through argument and anecdotal evidence, develops a convincing thesis that the American people, hesitatingly and often with frustrating slowness, have embraced not only the right, but the need, to honor dissent during times of national emergency. This is a hard-earned victory for free speech, one gained only through the raw and open courage of dissidents and the often underestimated and unseen courage of jurists who stood for principle when it mattered most. "Perilous Times" is an unusual historical analysis; its scholarship is meticulous, making it an academician's treasure, and its narrative drive is irresistible, welcoming a large audience to its research and understandings.
Wartime political dissent invariably brings charges of disloyalty and suspicions of motivation. Stone chronologically analyzes six periods of the condition of free speech during times of war; from the nation's first attempts to thwart free speech during the "half war" with France in the late 1790s to its coming of age in respect for the First Amendment in the Vietnam War era, those in power have had an uneven approach to the First Amendment. Within a decade of writing the First Amendment, a repressive congress passed the nefarious Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, blatant contradictions to the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. During World War I, the purportedly scholarly Woodrow Wilson unleashed an unprecedented assault on free speech through government-issued propaganda and outright prohibitions of "disloyal" speech. Of all the wartime presidents, Wilson's record receives the greatest criticism. At the onset of the Cold War, President Truman vacillated between steadfast commitment to First Amendment rights to outright capitulation to regressive legislation. His tolerance of "loyalty oaths" helped unleash McCarthyism.
Genuine heroes and heroines emerge in battle for free speech. There's the firebrand Mollie Steimer, whose outspoken opposition to capitalism and World War I earned her a fifteen-year prison sentenced for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917. Her crime: distribution leaflets that proclaimed: "there is only one enemy of workers...and that is CAPITALISM." During the Great Depression, the "boy wonder" of academia, Robert Maynard Hutchins, steadfastly championed free speech and thought at the University of Chicago. With extraordinary elegance and quiet courage, he breathed life into the need for more, not less, speech during times of duress. It's not difficult to measure the author's respect for David Dellinger -- pacifist, activist and advocate -- who used the First Amendment to help create movements for social justice and change.
Despite the existence of rogues -- and there are many of them who degraded the First Amendment in times of war -- Professor Stone reserves his greatest disappointment for the American people, who often responded apathetically or with outright encouragement when the government enacted repressive measures. No government of free people can reduce rights to rubble without their tacit approval. "Perilous Times" painstakingly confirms the conclusion that wartime restrictions on free speech reflected contemporary public opinion.
This distressing conclusion does not daunt the author. In a stirring final chapter -- one in which the Bush administration receives harsh reviews -- Stone argues that our government needs some institutional procedures that safeguard civil liberties during times of war. When passions run highest and calls for restricted free speech ring loudest, Professor Stone offers a series of guidelines that each of the three branches of government would be wise to adopt so that basic liberties may not be impaired.
"Perilous Times" is an important, triumphant work. Celebrating often overlooked heroes (like Judge Learned Hand, probably the greatest twentieth century jurist never to sit on the Supreme Court) and quixotic characters (for instance, Congressman Matthew "Spitting" Lyon, jailed for dissent in the 1790s), this lucidly written analysis of free speech should achieve its desired end. Professor Geoffrey Stone summons us to have the courage to stand for the principles of the First Amendment when the fear-laced winds of repression blow hardest.
Wartime political dissent invariably brings charges of disloyalty and suspicions of motivation. Stone chronologically analyzes six periods of the condition of free speech during times of war; from the nation's first attempts to thwart free speech during the "half war" with France in the late 1790s to its coming of age in respect for the First Amendment in the Vietnam War era, those in power have had an uneven approach to the First Amendment. Within a decade of writing the First Amendment, a repressive congress passed the nefarious Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, blatant contradictions to the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. During World War I, the purportedly scholarly Woodrow Wilson unleashed an unprecedented assault on free speech through government-issued propaganda and outright prohibitions of "disloyal" speech. Of all the wartime presidents, Wilson's record receives the greatest criticism. At the onset of the Cold War, President Truman vacillated between steadfast commitment to First Amendment rights to outright capitulation to regressive legislation. His tolerance of "loyalty oaths" helped unleash McCarthyism.
Genuine heroes and heroines emerge in battle for free speech. There's the firebrand Mollie Steimer, whose outspoken opposition to capitalism and World War I earned her a fifteen-year prison sentenced for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917. Her crime: distribution leaflets that proclaimed: "there is only one enemy of workers...and that is CAPITALISM." During the Great Depression, the "boy wonder" of academia, Robert Maynard Hutchins, steadfastly championed free speech and thought at the University of Chicago. With extraordinary elegance and quiet courage, he breathed life into the need for more, not less, speech during times of duress. It's not difficult to measure the author's respect for David Dellinger -- pacifist, activist and advocate -- who used the First Amendment to help create movements for social justice and change.
Despite the existence of rogues -- and there are many of them who degraded the First Amendment in times of war -- Professor Stone reserves his greatest disappointment for the American people, who often responded apathetically or with outright encouragement when the government enacted repressive measures. No government of free people can reduce rights to rubble without their tacit approval. "Perilous Times" painstakingly confirms the conclusion that wartime restrictions on free speech reflected contemporary public opinion.
This distressing conclusion does not daunt the author. In a stirring final chapter -- one in which the Bush administration receives harsh reviews -- Stone argues that our government needs some institutional procedures that safeguard civil liberties during times of war. When passions run highest and calls for restricted free speech ring loudest, Professor Stone offers a series of guidelines that each of the three branches of government would be wise to adopt so that basic liberties may not be impaired.
"Perilous Times" is an important, triumphant work. Celebrating often overlooked heroes (like Judge Learned Hand, probably the greatest twentieth century jurist never to sit on the Supreme Court) and quixotic characters (for instance, Congressman Matthew "Spitting" Lyon, jailed for dissent in the 1790s), this lucidly written analysis of free speech should achieve its desired end. Professor Geoffrey Stone summons us to have the courage to stand for the principles of the First Amendment when the fear-laced winds of repression blow hardest.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Don't be intimidated, as I first was, by the fact that the author was a law professor. Stone tells an important story in an engaging style, blending legal analysis with history lessons and character development - the result is a terrific book that is at the same time educational and thought-provoking. I confess I am a liberal, which is what attracted me to the title in the first place, but "Perilous Times" is not preachy. It is a true examination of the evolution of our relationship with the first Amendment. The good news seems to be that after each bow-wave of hysteria and fear, cooler heads prevail and free speech generally emerges intact. The bad news is that history does, in this case, seem to repeat itself. It's also important to note that the usual cast of towering figures in our history, like Roosevelt and Lincoln, were not innocent in their approach to defending the Constitution when they felt the country was in danger.
The bottom line is that I learned a tremendous amount from this book (and I bought it as a recreational read - I am not a law student) - it was terribly enlightening - and I think we ALL would do well to examine the issues that Stone presents - I believe we Americans don't take the time to have an appreciation for the Constitution really means - I guess we trust our lawmakers to cover that for us - but as Stone points out, that hasn't always worked out.
In my view, a must-read. Particularly today.
The bottom line is that I learned a tremendous amount from this book (and I bought it as a recreational read - I am not a law student) - it was terribly enlightening - and I think we ALL would do well to examine the issues that Stone presents - I believe we Americans don't take the time to have an appreciation for the Constitution really means - I guess we trust our lawmakers to cover that for us - but as Stone points out, that hasn't always worked out.
In my view, a must-read. Particularly today.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fear v. Democracy
"Perilous Times" is a great book about the fate of free speech during six American wars: the Quasi-War with France, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Cold War (really the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Reader
What Free Speech?
A very readable and comprehensive review of how the government has shut down the press during the times when we, the People, need them most.
Excellent Book!
Excellent Book!
Published 21 months ago by M. S. Partin
Interesting, but Incomplete Analysis of Free Speech in Wartime
This is an interesting but incomplete summary of First Amendment Restrictions during several wartime periods in American History. Read more
Published on September 12, 2009 by Bla50
Complementary readings to Stone's excellent book
There are already several good reviews on this book, so I will only suggest reading the following books (dealing with USA constitutional and political ideas) in addition to... Read more
Published on March 22, 2009 by César González Rouco
Seems like yesterday and today
This is a good read history repeats itself, history repeats itself. Did i say that?
There is nothing new under the sun. Read more
There is nothing new under the sun. Read more
Published on January 28, 2009 by john of art
outstanding resource
the 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... Read more
Published on April 22, 2008 by Robert W. Smith
A Masterful History of First Amendment Freedoms, and their suppression...
~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... Read more
Published on August 30, 2007 by R. Setliff
Speech in Wartime
Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times is a great book for understanding how free speech is affected during times of war and other periods of unrest. Read more
Published on November 8, 2006 by David Montgomery
book
Perilous 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... Read more
Published on November 5, 2006 by NY Tude
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... Read more
Published on June 21, 2006 by Dr. Lee D. Carlson
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First Sentence:
"MY COUNTRY, right or wrong!" "Love it or leave it!" "Better Dead than Red!" Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
cited ill note, press censorship provision, express advocacy, present clanger, federal loyalty program, antiwar dissent, enlistment service, sedition act, draft card burning, political repression, mass internment, bad tendency, unlawful conduct, previous restraints, fighting faiths Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Supreme Court, New York, Espionage Act, Soviet Union, Pentagon Papers, Cold War, Japanese Americans, Smith Act, Vietnam War, University of Chicago, Richard Nixon, Edgar Hoover, West Coast, Abraham Lincoln, State Department, Red Scare, Robert Jackson, Washington Post, Lyndon Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, New Deal, President Truman, Frank Murphy, Democratic Party, Francis Biddle New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
"MY COUNTRY, right or wrong!" "Love it or leave it!" "Better Dead than Red!" Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
cited ill note, press censorship provision, express advocacy, present clanger, federal loyalty program, antiwar dissent, enlistment service, sedition act, draft card burning, political repression, mass internment, bad tendency, unlawful conduct, previous restraints, fighting faiths Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Supreme Court, New York, Espionage Act, Soviet Union, Pentagon Papers, Cold War, Japanese Americans, Smith Act, Vietnam War, University of Chicago, Richard Nixon, Edgar Hoover, West Coast, Abraham Lincoln, State Department, Red Scare, Robert Jackson, Washington Post, Lyndon Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, New Deal, President Truman, Frank Murphy, Democratic Party, Francis Biddle New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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