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  • Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime
  • Joseph M. Valenzano III
Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime. By Geoffrey R. Stone. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004; pp xx + 730. $35.00.

Scholars, politicians, and the general public have been increasingly interested in examining the myriad of areas affected by the war on terror in which the United States and the rest of the world are currently embroiled. U.S. President George W. Bush has on several occasions claimed that this is a "new kind of war," a claim explored by legal scholar Geoffrey R. Stone. In Perilous Times: [End Page 363] Free Speech in Wartime Stone traces the policies and practices of the U.S. government toward regulating dissent during times of war. The author uses extensive primary source materials and rigorous analysis to provide a gripping narrative of the history of United States First Amendment law.

Stone vividly develops many of the individuals who helped shape the current landscape of First Amendment law. His accounting of J. Edgar Hoover's involvement in World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War makes clear the continuing attempts of the government to monitor potentially subversive views held by American citizens. Another frequent player in twentieth-century First Amendment law discussed by the author is Judge Learned Hand. Hand was a contemporary of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who, as the author clearly illustrates, influenced Holmes's positions on civil liberties in general, and free speech in particular. Ultimately, Stone argues that over the 200+-year history of the United States people like Hoover and Hand have often fought over the extent to which the government can restrict free speech, and that gradually the Supreme Court has come to understand its important role in protecting the civil liberties of citizens.

Though Stone's examinations and discussions of the six cases (Sedition Act of 1798, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Cold War, and Vietnam War) are thorough and absorbing, there is one area the reader may find missing: the war on terror. The author spends 527 pages on the six historical cases, but treats the more contemporary events of the war on terror almost in passing. The PATRIOT Act, for instance, receives only four pages of discussion. This controversial and complex piece of legislation could be discussed in further detail, especially given the historical comparisons of legislation made in other chapters. It would strengthen Stone's claim of the Court's developing understanding of First Amendment rights even further if he had expounded on how the PATRIOT Act is a development in interpretation of free speech by the executive and judicial wings of government from the COINTELPRO investigations of the Vietnam War, the McCarren Internal Security Act of 1950, the Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1798, and the suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War.

One of the important underlying themes in Stone's history is that "a critical function of free speech in wartime is to help the nation make wise decisions about how to conduct the war, [and] whether its leaders are doing well, whether to end the war." In this the author makes quite clear how throughout U.S. history the executive and legislative branches have had potentially destructive reactions to public fears during times of crisis, and that until the twentieth century the Court had largely been an accomplice in these efforts. Stone demonstrates how people like Judge Hand, Fred Korematsu, and Attorney General Edward Levi, to name a few, have helped to craft a more expansive free speech environment in the United States. [End Page 364]

Stone's history of free speech in the United States during wartime is impeccable; however, the application of the history to contemporary times seems to deserve more attention than it receives. Even so, this book underscores the importance of free speech during wartime for citizens as well as all three branches of the government. Stone also highlights the fact that the best way to preserve civil liberties in times of war in the future is to learn from the lessons of how they were treated during past crises. Once again the United States...

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