Synopses & Reviews
Award-winning columnist Lewis Lapham issues an urgent new polemic about the strangling of meaningful dissent the lifeblood of democracy at the hands of a government and media increasingly beholden to the wealthy few. Never before, Lapham argues, have voices of protest been so locked out of the mainstream conversation, so marginalized and muted by a government that recklessly disregards civil liberties. In the midst of the "war on terror," we face a crisis of democracy as serious as any in our history. Gag Rule is a rousing and necessary call to action in defense of the right to raise our voices and have those voices heard.
Review
"A lively political pamphlet written in the tradition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense....[I]t takes aim not only at the politics of fear, but also at institutions and social phenomena that bolster an American tyranny of the easily manipulated majority." New York Times
Review
"Liberals will hail Gag Rule as defining the disaster Bush has spawned. Conservatives will curse it as a Democratic polemic; administration spokesmen will find countless nits to declare it rubbish. Regardless, it should be among your must-reads before November." Providence Journal
Review
"[Lapham] dynamically builds a compelling moral argument capable of moving readers of all political persuasions to reflect deeply on the dangers facing our republic." San Antonio Express-News
Review
"Splendid...Lewis Lapham [is] in my opinion the most incisive essayist in America." Molly Ivins
Synopsis
In this first serious book by the award-winning columnist in more than a decade, Lapham issues a call to action in defense of one of our most important liberties the right to raise our voices against the powers that be and have those voices heard.
About the Author
Lewis H. Lapham studied at Yale and Cambridge and worked for the San Francisco Examiner and New York Herald Tribune before becoming editor of Harper's magazine in 1971.