Why read Perilous Times?

Book cover of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime: From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism

Book description

Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times incisively investigates how the First Amendment and other civil liberties have been compromised in America during wartime. Stone delineates the consistent suppression of free speech in six historical periods from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the Vietnam War, and ends with a coda that examines…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked Perilous Times as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Suzanna Sherry

Author

This book is not actually about wokeness. Instead, it helps us see the dangers inherent in that ideology.

Perilous Times is a partial history of the American government’s censorship of speech and thought from the 1790s to the early 2000s. Stone is a fabulous storyteller. Even though I’ve studied – and taught – constitutional law and constitutional history for decades, some of what he recounts was new to me, and all of it was newly fascinating in its detail and its focus on people as well as events.

In a way, this is a “be careful what you wish for”…

From Suzanna's list on The best books on why liberals should fear “woke” culture.