Freedom Under Fire: U.S. Civil Liberties in Times of War

By Michael Linfield

"The great wars we have fought for the sake of liberty have been accompanied, without exception, by the most draconian assaults on individual rights. This is the theme of Michael Linfield's Freedom... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0896083748
• ISBN13: 9780896083745
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: South End Press
• Length: 282 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.4" x 0.7" x 5.4"

Customer Reviews

The Real American History

Forget those boring civics classes, forget those classes where American history's most important events were relegated to footnotes skipped over by the teacher. If Howard Zinn had not written "A People's History of the United States" Michael Linfield has written it for him.Linfield's compelling revealations of the US government's record of civil liberties violations throughout our relatively short, bloody, aggressive and imperialistic history documents how every real and contrived wartime scenario has been used by the rulers to eliminate civil liberties and impose a true Pax Americana domestically.Beginning with the American "Revolution" which appears to me to be less and less like a revolution and more and more like a contrived power and land grab by the greedy, not the needy. I believe that one could make a case for the fact that after their ascension to power, that American "revolutionaries" were as reactionary and oppressive as the power from whoom they had wrested control.Each wartime scenario shattters any illusion of goodness or democracy with one holds certain rulers. As Jim Morrison wrote, "No One Here gets Out Alive." So, too, with the author. One comes swiftly to the conclusion that not one U.S. leader, either in declared wartime or between conflicts has really done anything to insure the civil liberties for which Americans fought and died on a myriad of foreign battlefields.Linfield has written American history as it is, not as, Rush Limbaugh might ask, "The Way Things Ought to Be." This is indeed Mr. Wells' history, Howard Zin''s history, but not 10th grade American high schol history.I highly recommend reading Linfield's book, checking out the footnotes and the primary source documents. Keep the book handy next time some...patriot resembling a beached whale drenches those around him with his version of American history. Linfield's book will rock their world.

Unduely neglected

Linfield's work provides a handy overview of extent to which Constitutional safeguards have been compromised over the years, particularly during wartime. Beginning with the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts of the Revolutionary war period, through the Civil War, W.W.I, and Vietnam eras, the author compiles a steady pattern of government assault on Constitutional restrictions whenever those restrictions become politically or militarily inconvenient. Of particular note in this regard, are the McCarran - Walter Act of the cold war era, aimed at resricting free flow of information and travel, and the notorious Palmer raids following W.W.I, aimed at curbing the rise of a socialist movement. Whether your politics are left, right or center, this historical record should be of interest. It shows pretty clearly how slender are these parchment-bound safeguards whenever established wealth and power feels threatened.