Synopses & Reviews
In each generation, for different reasons, America witnesses a tug of war between the instinct to suppress and the instinct for openness. Today, with the perception of a mortal threat from terrorists, the instinct to suppress is in the ascendancy. Part of the reason for this is the trauma that our country experienced on September 11, 2001, and part of the reason is that the people who are in charge of our government are inclined to use the suppression of information as a management strategy.
Rather than waiting ten or fifteen years to point out what's wrong with the current rush to limit civil liberties in the name of "national security," these essays by top thinkers, scholars, journalists, and historians lift the veil on what is happening and why the implications are dangerous and disturbing and ultimately destructive of American values and ideals. Without our even being aware, the judiciary is being undermined, the press is being intimidated, racial profiling is rampant, and our privacy is being invaded. The "war on our freedoms " is just as real as the "war on terror "-and, in the end, just as dangerous.
Synopsis
A PublicAffairs Reports Paperback Original
America's leading experts on civil liberties sound an alarm about the consequences of the war on terrorism for our freedom at home
About the Author
Richard C.Leone is president of The Century Foundation and has served as chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, president of the New York Mercantile Exchange, and a faculty member at Princeton University. Greg Anrig, Jr. is vice president of programs at The Century Foundation and the former Washington bureau chief of Money magazine.
Table of Contents
The quiet republic : the missing debate about civil liberties after 9/11 / Richard C. Leone -- A familiar story : lessons from past assaults on freedoms / Alan Brinkley -- Security and liberty : preserving the values of freedom / Anthony Lewis -- No checks, no balances : discarding bedrock constitutional principles / Stephen J. Schulhofer -- The least worst place : life on Guantâanamo / Joseph Lelyveld -- Under a watchful eye : incursions on personal privacy / Kathleen Sullivan -- Who are we now : the collateral damage to immigration / Roberto Suro -- The new American dilemma : racial profiling post-9/11 / Christopher Edley, Jr. -- From saviors to suspects : new threats to infectious disease research / Patricia Thomas -- Need to know : governing in secret / John Podesta -- Watchdogs on a leash : closing doors on the media / John F. Stacks -- The fog of war : covering the war on terrorism / Stanley Cloud -- The go-for-broke presidency : can national unity and partnership coexist / E.J. Dionne, Jr. -- On the home front : a lawyers struggle to defend rights after 9/11 / Ann Beeson.