Perilous Times

by Stone, Geoffrey R.

• ISBN13: 9780393058802
• ISBN10: 0393058808
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-25
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc

Summary

An investigation into how free speech and other civil liberties have been compromised in America by war in six historical periods describes how presidents, Supreme Court justices, and resistors contributed to the administration of civil freedoms, in an account complemented by rare photographs, posters, and historical illustrations. 20,000 first printing.

Author Biography

Geoffrey R. Stone is the Harry Kalven Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xv
Acknowledgments	xix
Introduction War Fever	3	(2)
``Congress Shall Make No Law ...''	5	(7)
The Lessons of History	12	(3)
The ``Half War'' with France: The First First Amendment	15	(64)
The Lyon of Vermont	17	(4)
On War Footing	21	(4)
``A Mere Bugbear''?	25	(4)
The Alien Acts: ``All Is Darkness, Silence, Mystery, and Suspicion''	29	(4)
The Sedition Act of 1798: ``Fraught with the Most Serious Mischiefs''	33	(11)
``The Reign of Witches''	44	(4)
The Trial of Matthew Lyon	48	(6)
The Trial of Thomas Cooper	54	(7)
The Trial of James Callender	61	(2)
``Persecutions and Personal Indignities''	63	(4)
``We Are All Republicans---We Are All Federalists''	67	(6)
``There Is No Such Thing as a False Idea''	73	(4)
Spadre Bluffs	77	(2)
The Civil War: Mr. Lincoln's First Amendment	79	(56)
``Spotty Lincoln''	81	(1)
``Abraham Africanus the First''	82	(12)
Clement Vallandigham and General Order No. 38	94	(14)
Abraham Lincoln and the Freedom of Speech	108	(12)
``Please Spare Me the Trouble''	120	(6)
Despot, Liar, Usurper, Thief, Monster, Perjurer, Ignoramus, Swindler, Tyrant, Fiend, Butcher, and Pirate	126	(7)
``Even at the Darkest Moments''	133	(2)
World War I: ``Clear and Present Danger''?	135	(100)
A Mere ``Slip of a Girl''	138	(2)
War Opponents: Jane Addams, Eugene V. Debs, and Emma Goldman	140	(6)
The Espionage Act of 1917	146	(7)
``A Divided, Fearful, and Intolerant Nation''	153	(5)
The Legal Context	158	(2)
Judges Bourquin, Amidon, and Hand	160	(10)
The Triumph of ``Bad Tendency''	170	(4)
The Death of Free Speech: ``What Is an Attempt?''	174	(6)
``Antiwar Expression . . . Had Little Chance''	180	(2)
``The First Amendment Had No Hold on People's Minds''	182	(2)
The Sedition Act of 1918: ``When Did It Become War upon the American People?''	184	(8)
The U.S. Supreme Court: ``Clear and Present Danger''?	192	(6)
The Transformation of Justice Holmes: ``I Hope I Would Die for It''	198	(14)
The Department of Justice: John Lord O'Brian and Alfred Bettman	212	(8)
The Red Scare of 1919--1920	220	(6)
``The Maturer Judgment of Posterity''	226	(6)
The Firebrand	232	(3)
World War II: ``Nothing to Fear''?	235	(76)
To Avoid the Mistakes of the Past	240	(4)
The Dies Committee	244	(4)
The Smith Act and J. Edgar Hoover	248	(4)
``When Are You Going to Indict the Seditionists?''	252	(6)
``The American Hitler''	258	(8)
The Prosecution of William Dudley Pelley and the Sedition Act of 1798	266	(6)
The ``Great Sedition Trial'' of World War II	272	(3)
``A Dark Chapter in Our Record of the Last World War''	275	(5)
``No Official, High or Petty''	280	(3)
Aliens and Citizens	283	(3)
``A Jap's a Jap''	286	(11)
The ``Ugly Abyss of Racism''	297	(6)
``We Now Know What We Should Have Known Then''	303	(4)
Murphy, Jackson, and Biddle	307	(4)
The Cold War: The First Amendment in Extremis	311	(116)
``Boy Wonder''	314	(4)
Reds	318	(5)
The Red Menace, 1945--1950	323	(7)
The Red Menace, 1950--1954	330	(11)
``Absolute'' Loyalty	341	(11)
HUAC: ``The Other Side of the Barricades''	352	(7)
HUAC: ``On the Trail of the Tarantula''	359	(8)
The ``Blond Spy Queen'' and the Time Editor	367	(7)
Tail Gunner Joe	374	(8)
``So Reckless and So Cruel''	382	(11)
Francis Biddle and John Lord O'Brian Revisited	393	(2)
Dennis v. United States	395	(16)
June 17, 1957	411	(8)
``Paralysis Rather than Protest''	419	(4)
``How Would They Ever Learn Better?''	423	(4)
The Vietnam War: The Supreme Court's First Amendment	427	(100)
The Pacifist	430	(3)
The Roots of the Antiwar Movement	433	(3)
``I Don't Want Us to Get into That Dangerous Situation''	436	(7)
``A Movement Cannot Grow without Repression''	443	(8)
The 1968 Democratic National Convention: ``A Scene from the Russian Revolution''	451	(8)
Days of Rage, Kent State, and May Day	459	(12)
``A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority'' and the Law of Conspiracy	471	(11)
Radicalism on Trial: The Conspiracy Trial	482	(5)
``Expose, Disrupt and Otherwise Neutralize''	487	(13)
The Pentagon Papers	500	(17)
The Supreme Court and Vietnam: ``The Perfect Ending to a Long Story''?	517	(8)
``The Government Has Misread the Times''	525	(2)
Conclusion The Secret of Liberty	527	(32)
Can We Do Better?	530	(20)
The War on Terrorism	550	(9)
Notes	559	(134)
Index	693