From Publishers Weekly
Using a handful of movies as metaphors– not to mention a healthy dose of George Orwell – attorney John W. Whitehead's book is an overzealous investigation of the increasingly invasive methods various surveillance agencies are using under the guise of protecting citizens. He offers example after example of the erosion of civil liberties. The Patriot Act, Whitehead says, has given government agencies like the NSA and even local police departments the ability to use electronic surveillance via GPS, cell phones, and cameras to monitor our activities, often without our knowledge. His increasingly strident tone as he describes mobile scanners that can monitor your every movement, even in your own home, and a society in which pharmaceuticals are used to keep the populace anaesthetized and obedient cranks up the melodrama. With photos clippings, diagrams, bullet points, full page graphics, the execution of this book may come off as a riled-up rant but his multiple examples, backed up with copious footnotes and references, are enough to give even the most optimistically obedient citizen cause for concern. Whitehead is a concerned citizen bursting at the seams to get his point across. (June)
Review
"John Whitehead is one of the most eloquent and knowledgeable defenders of liberty, and opponents of the growing American police state, writing today. I am pleased to recommend A Government of Wolves to anyone interested in learning how modern America increasingly resembles a dystopian science fiction film instead of a Constitutional Republic."
--Ron Paul, 12-term US Congressman and former Presidential candidate
"I was privileged to have Duke Ellington as a mentor, who said of the jazz that was unsuccessfully banned in their countries by Stalin and Hitler: "The music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country." But only a basically free country could have produced back then such freedom of expression that has become so energizing a global presence. If we are to be again this free a nation, John Whitehead will have had a lot to do with our being able to swing again."
--Nat Hentoff, American historian and nationally syndicated columnist
"The loss of liberty doesn't begin with invading armies, but with creeping government that slowly and almost imperceptibly invades our privacy with cameras, drones, wiretaps and monitoring of email communication. We are told this is for our own good. In this book, John Whitehead sounds a warning about overreaching government we had better heed before the point of no return has been reached."
--Cal Thomas, Syndicated and USA Today Columnist/Fox News Contributor
"? Where is Thomas Paine now that we need him? He's here just in the nick of time in the person of John Whitehead, an uncompromising debunker of lies, rhetoric mongers, rights-shredders and the criminal acts of our shameless, double-crossing government. Drop everything and read A Government of Wolves before it's too late! I loved and was horrified by this disturbing and courageous book!"
--David Dalton, New York Times bestselling author and a founding editor of Rolling Stone Magazine
"A masterfully documented chronicle of frightened citizen vassalage to a Leviathan state in a hopes of a risk-free existence. An end to liberty is at hand."
--Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and author of American Empire Before The Fall
John Whitehead is one of the most eloquent and knowledgeable defenders of liberty, and opponents of the growing American police state, writing today. I am pleased to recommend A Government of Wolves to anyone interested in learning how modern America increasingly resembles a dystopian science fiction film instead of a Constitutional Republic. -- Ron Paul, 12-term US Congressman and former Presidential candidate
The loss of liberty doesn't begin with invading armies, but with creeping government that slowly and almost imperceptibly invades our privacy with cameras, drones, wiretaps and monitoring of email communication. We are told this is for our own good. In this book, John Whitehead sounds a warning about overreaching government we had better heed before the point of no return has been reached. -- Cal Thomas, Syndicated and USA Today Columnist/Fox News Contributor
I was privileged to have Duke Ellington as a mentor, who said of the jazz that was unsuccessfully banned in their countries by Stalin and Hitler: The music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country. But only a basically free country could have produced back then such freedom of expression that has become so energizing a global presence. If we are to be again this free a nation, John Whitehead will have had a lot to do with our being able to swing again. -- Nat Hentoff, American historian and nationally syndicated columnist
? Where is Thomas Paine now that we need him? He's here just in the nick of time in the person of John Whitehead, an uncompromising debunker of lies, rhetoric mongers, rights-shredders and the criminal acts of our shameless, double-crossing government. Drop everything and read A Government of Wolves before it's too late! I loved and was horrified by this disturbing and courageous book! -- David Dalton, New York Times bestselling author and a founding editor of Rolling Stone Magazine
A masterfully documented chronicle of frightened citizen vassalage to a Leviathan state in a hopes of a risk-free existence. An end to liberty is at hand. -- Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and author of American Empire Before The Fall
About the Author
John W. Whitehead is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead’s concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization whose international headquarters are located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Deeply committed to protecting the constitutional freedoms of every American and the integral human rights of all people, The Rutherford Institute has emerged as a prominent leader in the national dialogue on civil liberties and human rights and a formidable champion of the Constitution. Whitehead serves as the Institute’s president and spokesperson. Widely recognized as one of the nation’s most vocal and involved civil liberties attorneys, Whitehead’s approach to civil liberties issues has earned him numerous accolades and accomplishments, including the Hungarian Medal of Freedom and the 2010 Milner S. Ball Lifetime Achievement Award for “[his] decades of difficult and important work, as well as [his] impeccable integrity in defending civil liberties for all.” As nationally syndicated columnist Nat Hentoff observed about Whitehead: “John Whitehead is not only one of the nation’s most consistent and persistent civil libertarians. He is also a remarkably perceptive illustrator of our popular culture, its insights and dangers. I often believe that John Whitehead is channeling the principles of James Madison, who would be very proud of him.” Born in 1946 in Tennessee, John W. Whitehead earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in 1969 and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1974. He served as an officer in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
