Civil Rights & Liberties Books - Page 6

On Liberty

John Stuart Mill

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The great defender of individual liberty 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-73, worked for the East India Co. helped run Colonial India from England. Minister of Parliament 1865-68 he served one term. Maiden speech was a disaster his second was great success. He was first MP to propose that women should be given the vote on equal footing with the men who could vote. He got 1/3 support, England gives franchise to women after U.S. He was a great Feminist, his essay "Subjection of Women" is written with great passion and prose. It was a brave position for him to take he was ridiculed for it. He favored democracy, and letting more men from lower classes the right to vote, but believed that people that are more educated should have more votes then less educated because they would make better decisions about what government should do. He would have wanted to extend education to the masses, so that all may have gotten 2-3 votes and so on. He didn't think it should be extended to where a small elite could carry the day on votes. The idea was that if the working class, and middle class, where divided on an issue, the people with more intelligence would have the power to tip the balance. Mill thought that people with more education would probably not only be better able to make political decisions, especially in terms of intellectually being able to see what would be best for the government to do, but that they would also be more concerned about the common good publicly then people in general. He was intensely educated by his father James. John could read Greek, and Latin at 6 yrs.; his Dad tutored him at home. Dad thought environment was everything. He was treated like an adult, never played games with kids; he had a very cerebral upbringing. He had a period of depression in his twenties, it changed his philosophy, and he recognized the importance of developing feelings along with the intellect, this is something that he stressed in his work. He read poetry to get out of depression; he became devoted to poetry and became a romantic. He fell in love with a married woman Harriet Taylor, was a platonic relationship, after her husband's death they married 3 years later and probably never consummated the marriage maybe due to his having syphilis. His dedication to "On Liberty" is to her, very devoted to each other. Both buried together in Avignon France where they used to vacation.

Mill as a moral theorist subscribed to a theory we call Utilitarianism. It means---In some way morality is about the maximization of happiness. Whether actions are right or wrong depends on how happiness can be most effectively maximized. I say in some way, because there are allot of different kinds of Utilitarians. Allot of different ways of saying exactly how it is the maximization of happiness comes into morality. Therefore, happiness is clearly an important idea for Utilitarians. Mill has a hedonistic view of happiness, he thinks that happiness can be defined in terms of "pleasure in the absence of pain." What is distinctive about Mill in this area is that he believes that some kinds of pleasure are better than others are, and add more to a person's happiness than other kinds of pleasures. He believes in what he calls, "higher quality pleasures." These are pleasures, he says, that we get from the exercise of faculties that only human beings happen to have. So the intellect, imagination, the moral feelings, these are the sources of higher quality pleasures people use. His view seems to be that a certain quantity of intellectual pleasure just adds more to your happiness, and a given quantity of some lower pleasure like a kind we would share with the animals such as sensation, taste, sexual pleasure, etc. His "higher quality pleasures" in a way echo Aristotle's ethics. The idea of those things that make us distinctly human that are the real key to our happiness, that is in Mill also. It is not as limited to reason and intellect as Aristotle thinks. Mill recognizes the importance of the appreciation of beauty, aesthetic pleasure, and moral pleasure. He frankly owes a debt to Aristotle that he never properly acknowledges, never gives him proper credit.

"On Liberty" is Mill's is his most widely read and enduring work. It is an indispensable essay on political thought, which strenuously argues for individual liberty. He is defending what he calls the "liberty principle." It is a principle that guarantees individuals quite a bit of personal freedom. "That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." These quoted sentences in John Stuart Mill's book, "On Liberty," embody the crux of his argument; that the power of the state must intrude as little as possible on the liberty of its citizenry. In essence, Mill was against using the power of the state through its lawmaking apparatus to compel citizens to conduct themselves in ways that society deems moral or appropriate. Mill thought that people had not only a right, but also a duty to develop their intellectual faculties, which is indispensable to maximize their happiness. He believed that society improved for all its citizens when they where left unfettered to the maximum extent possible, allowing them to use their imagination and intellect to improve themselves. Mill postulates a theory that societies usually institute laws based primarily on "personal preference" of its citizenry instead of established principles. This lack of clarity of opinion often leads to the government frequently interfering in the lives of its citizens unnecessarily. For Mill, there are very few times when the state can infringe on the personal liberty of others. Firstly, the state has the right to promulgate laws that prevent a person's actions from harming others. Secondly, the state must protect those citizens who are not mature enough to protect themselves, such as children. Thirdly, he exempts, "... backward states of society in which the race itself may be considered as in its nonage." In Mill's view, immature societies need a benevolent leader to rule them until they have developed to a point where they, "... have attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion ..." Mill said this third exemption did not apply to any of the countries in Europe. Mill believed that forced morality by the state on its citizen's liberties was destructive to their inward development, and could even lead to a violent reaction by them against the government.


There are different parts of his defense of this, different arguments that he gives. He has a long chapter on freedom of speech and press. He has some very specific reasons why he thinks those freedoms are important. Always in the background for Mill is the idea of development, and making it possible for more people to enjoy these higher quality pleasures. How do we help people develop their distinctly human faculties, in ways that will help them enjoy their higher quality pleasures? Because for him that is the way, we maximize the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed in the world, and that is the object of morality as far as he is concerned. Utilitarianists believe that maximizing happiness is ultimately, what morality is all about. That does not mean maximizing your own happiness that means maximizing the total amount of happiness that is enjoyed, not only by yourself but also by everybody else as well.

Roger Kimball, in his book "Experiments Against Reality" wrote, "On Liberty" was published in 1859, coincidentally the same year as "On the Origin of Species." Darwin's book has been credited--and blamed--for all manner of moral and religious mischief. But in the long run "On Liberty" may have effected an even greater revolution in sentiment.

I read this book for a graduate class in Philosophy. Recommended reading for anyone interested in philosophy, political science, and history.

Editorial Review:

In "On Liberty", John Stuart Mill begins by writing, "The subject of this essay is not the so-called 'liberty of the will', so unfortunately opposed to the misnamed doctrine of philosophical necessity; but civil, or social liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual." It is this concept that is at the heart of this work. John Stuart Mill eloquently ponders the question of where the line should be drawn between the freedom of individuals and the authority of the state. As he puts it, "The struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar..."

The Freedom Outlaw's Handbook: 179 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution

Claire Wolfe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

At once hard-hitting and occasionally funny 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 29 people found this review helpful.

Here is a list of almost 200 things to do 'til the revolution. The Freedom Outlaw's Handbook advocates that the country is mid-way between a revolt against a non-working system and compliance within that system. The ideal citizen may be obedient to such an order, but not Claire Wolfe: her Freedom Outlaw's Handbook tells how to confront tyranny to win back small freedoms, from learning how to keep private information out of the public eye to preparing for the worst possibilities. At once hard-hitting and occasionally funny.

Editorial Review:

Claire Wolfe is back and has expanded her original 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution to 179 thought-and-action items. Some will work for nearly everyone. Some are for those who are more radical. Some are serious. Some are fun. All of them will shore up the privacy barrier that's being eroded - if not downright blasted away - by the Patriot Act, by corporate "Little Brotherism", and by other laws and regulations. Better yet, Claire will inspire you to free your own Inner Outlaw and kick tyrant butt so you can win back freedom. The choices you make are up to you. But if you've been sitting back waiting for the water to get a little hotter before you jump out of the big government, total control vat, Claire gives you 179 tools to help you plan and work.

You & the Police!

Boston T. Party, Kenneth W. Royce

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A guide for all freedom lovers and constitutionalists 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Very well written with many law references and background. BT really did his homework and offers many examples of police opression from his own personal experience. BT is obviously well educated and has a very smooth writing style. This book is a "must read" for all African Americans and anyone else who is tired of being harrassed by or afraid of the police. Also contains many warnings of things to come that will make more law abiding Americans think that they are criminals. Shows the trend of current police forces to make working Americans the enemy and extort as much money as possible out of the common tax paying citizen rather than spend thousands of dollars trying to arrest and convict the real criminals.

Editorial Review:

This 2005 edition is a greatly revised, revamped, and expanded version since the original of 1996.

Covers nearly a dozen newer Supreme Court decisions, as well as the "USA PATRIOT" Act. A new chapter regarding your lawful firearms was also included.

If you were stopped for a broken tail-light, and then the officer asked to search your trunk, what could you do? What should you say or not? Where do your rights and his powers meet?

Reviewed by several practicing attorneys, you can rely upon the quality information and ideas inside.

This is still the only book of its kind, and a must read for every American in this increasingly regulatory age.

How To Start Your Own Country

Erwin S. Strauss

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Tough Read, Good Book 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

I found this book to be quite entertaining, I myself started my own country with the help of this book (The Principality of Saint Corjimia). Although this book is wirtten with em' big words and all, its a great read. I also noticed you get funny looks when reading this book in public.

Outdated but accurate - and funny too! 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Unlike most of the projects described, this book is pretty realistic about the problems facing prospective nation founders. It contains an excellent compendium of past projects, with some amusing commentary. While the title is rather overstating the content, it does provide some decent ideas about how to go about this difficult task. The material is dated, but at least its not absurdly utopian or impractical like some of its competitors (ie Marshall Savage).

Expect humor pointed at foolish projects, some hard talk about realism, and some good ideas to get started. Don't expect a true handbook or fleshed out ideas, its a short book.

Editorial Review:

Can you really start your own country? Erwin Strauss shows you five different methods for doing just that, as well as everything you need to know about sovereignty, national defense, diplomacy, raising revenue and recruiting settlers. Includes dozens of new-country success stories. Why settle for being king of your castle when you can be king of your own country?

The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All

Gareth Evans

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Editorial Review:

After the Holocaust, the world vowed it would never again stand by and permit such heinous crimes against humanity. Yet many subsequent atrocities have gone unchecked, all over the world: from the killing fields of Cambodia, to Rwanda, and to Srebrenica. The bloody list continues to grow, led by the unfolding nightmare in Darfur. How and why were the world's best intentions derailed, and what can be done today to put these efforts back on track? The "responsibility to protect: - R2P for short - was unanimously embraced at the UN World Summit in 2005. The heart of this new international norm is the belief that if sovereign governments fail to protect their own people from mass atrocity crimes, then responsibility shifts to the wider international community to take whatever action is appropriate, including (in extreme cases) the use of force. The world cannot, and will not, just stand by. Evens spells out the steps needed to make R2P work in practice and clarifies the misunderstandings, real or contrived, which persist about its scope and limits. He emphasizes the need for preventive action, and for preferring assistance and persuasion to coercion, but he also makes clear when it is right to fight. The book is enlivened throughout by real world examples, analyses of current events, and assessments drawn from the author's own vast experience.

The Ten Things You Can't Say in America

Larry Elder

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Total reviews: 198 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From Rush Limbaugh to Howard Stern, America tunes in to its radio hosts both on the air and between covers, accepting them as truth-tellers without agendas, the perfect gadflies for the age of too much information. In an era where everyone seems bought and paid for, they cut through it all to tell it like it is. For Fall 2000--just in time to enter the fray for the presidential election season-St. Martin's is happy to present the most unfettered voice of all, Larry Elder.

Larry Elder has been igniting passions and conversations for five years at the top of the competitive drive-time radio heap, KABC in Los Angeles-the "Sage from South Central" punctures pretensions, refuses to accept the accepted wisdom, and puts everyone on notice that the status quo needs to be shaken up. From his outrage over the entrenched "victicrat" society and how it keeps believers spinning their wheels, to his trenchant observations on work, leadership, race, special interests, politics and more, Larry is a clarion voice that cuts through what the usual suspects say and hear.

"Bad schools, crime, drugs, high taxes, the social security mess, racism, the health care crisis, unemployment, welfare state dependency, illegitimacy. What do these issues have in common? Politicians, the media and our so-called leaders lie to us about them. They lie about the cause. They lie about the effect. They lie about the solutions." -- Larry Elder

The Ten Things You Can't Say In America:

Blacks are More Racist than Whites
White Condescension is as Real as Black Racism
The Media Bias: It's Real, It's Widespread, It's Destructive
The Glass Ceiling: Full of Holes
America's Greatest Problem: Illegitimacy
The Big Lie: Our Health Care Crisis
The Welfare State: Helping Us to Death
Republican v. Democrat: Maybe a Dime's worth of Difference, One's for Big Government, One's for Bigger
Vietnam II: The War on Drugs, and We're Losing that One Too
Gun Control Advocates: Good Guys with Blood on Their Hands

Skipping Towards Gomorrah

Dan Savage

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 58 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

It's best to err on the side of avoiding incestuous handjobs 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Best quote, among thousands of jewels, from Dan Savage.

A couple of years ago, I went on vacation with a bunch of friends to a beach resort town in South Africa. Clear blue water, white sand, skimpy bathing suits on lovely people of both sexes. Should have been a wild time, right? Well, it wasn't, at least for the first few days, because I brought along Skipping Towards Gomorrah for my beach-book. I already knew I loved Dan, and thought I could just dip into Skipping whenever I felt like a rest. Ha! Once I started, I was way too into it to stop for much of anything. And, of course, all my friends were constantly running back from the ocean to see what the hell I was laughing at. The elevator scene in the Gluttony chapter can still send me into fits. I had to buy a new copy once I got back to the States, as mine "mysteriously" disappeared. I know whoever stole it from me enjoyed it as much as I did, and hope they're passing it round to everyone they know, and even some strangers.

Editorial Review:

In Skipping Towards Gomorrah, Dan Savage eviscerates the right-wing conservatives as he commits each of the Seven Deadly Sins himself (or tries to) and finds those everyday Americans who take particular delight in their sinful pursuits. Among them:

Greed: Gamblers reveal secrets behind outrageous fortune.
Lust: "We're swingers!"-you won't believe who's doing it.
Anger: Texans shoot off some rounds and then listen to Dan fire off on his own about guns, gun control, and the Second Amendment.

Combine a unique history of the Seven Deadly Sins, a new interpretation of the biblical stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, and enough Bill Bennett, Robert Bork, Pat Buchanan, Dr. Laura, and Bill O'Reilly bashing to more than make up for their incessant carping, and you've got the most provocative book of the fall.

Censored 2009: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007-08 (Censored)

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Carefully orchestrated. . . . This well-researched work is highly recommended for most libraries."-Library Journal (starred review)

"Buy it, read it, act on it. Our future depends on the knowledge this collection of suppressed stories allows us."-The San Diego Review

"Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens."-Los Angeles Times

The best-selling Censored series-with over 150,000 copies in print-highlights each year's twenty-five most important underreported news stories, alerting readers to the negligence of corporate media and the resurgence of alternative media.

Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, is an associate professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. He is known for his pieces in the alternative press and independent newspapers nationwide, such as Z Magazine and Social Policy.

Andrew Roth, associate director of Project Censored, is an assistant professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. His research explores how the conventions of journalism shape news content and coverage of environmental issues.

Project Censored, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, has as its principal objective the advocacy for and protection of First Amendment rights and the freedom of information in the United States.

The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (Vintage)

Gene Roberts, Hank Klibanoff

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Free at Last, Free At Last, Thank God Almighty (almost) Free at Last 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation

-- Reviewed by Philip W. Henry
When the civil rights story began in the early 1960's, I was a freshman at a Northern College. So much was happening between 1963 and 1968 that it was possible to miss some of the real history unfolding outside "The Ivory Tower `while studying the past. Now, I'm trying to fill in some of the blanks in my education. "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of the Nation" is a good place to begin. Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff were both intimately involved in covering the biggest stories of the South. Drawing on extensive interviews, and digging in previously unpublished documents and memoirs, they paint a fascinating portrait of the crisis of conscience and confidence that the civil rights story caused in the Southern Media Establishment.
The tensions developed in covering the race story were not just between White, Liberal, and often Jewish Northern News Organizations v. the Old South; but within the Southern Media as well. There were honest and decent Southern publishers and editors who decried the move toward Klan violence and barricaded school houses epitomized by Lester Maddox, Orval Faubus and George Wallace. Ironically, many of the top editors of the supposed Yankee Press (especially The New York Times) were Southerners themselves. (Turner Catledge, one of the T imes's top editors, was from Philadelphia, Mississippi, where the three civil rights workers were found murdered).
If anything propelled the Story of the South into the living rooms of the country it was TV News. The sight of Freedom Riders being beaten, firehosed and dragged away; and the four little girls in their church outfits killed in the cowardly KKK bombing of a Birmingham Church, inflamed the American conscience.

The Assassinations of Medgar Evers; the Birmingham Four; and the three young civil rights workers from the north and the refusal of local law enforcement to investigate the case added to the fray. The sheriff and his deputy were later indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in a case prosecuted by John Doar, the young Justice Department Lawyer who later gained fame in the Watergate Prosecution.

In one telling scene, Doar stands in front of a group of rebel yokels and confronts them. He could easily have been killed or lynched, but by the force of his conviction he prevailed. .

If there is some vindication out of all this, several cases believed to be so cold or so compromised that justice could never be served, have been solved. Medgar Evers's killing took thirty years to solve, but the failed fertilizer salesman Byron De La Beckwith, who was spared by a hung jury earlier, paid a price thirty years later: (One Mississippi paper, unable to bring itself to claim De La Beckwith as one of "Ole Miss's Own," said: " Californian held in Murders." (He had spent his first five years in California)
"In 1994, thirty years after the two previous trials had failed to reach a verdict, Beckwith was again brought to trial based on new evidence concerning statements he made to others. During the trial, the body of Evers was exhumed from his grave for autopsy, and found to be in a surprisingly good state of preservation as a result of embalming. Beckwith was finally convicted of murder on February 5, 1994, after living as a free man for three decades after the killing. Beckwith appealed unsuccessfully, and died in prison in January 2001."

There are good guys and gremlins, of course. Robert Kennedy, never popular in the south, is portrayed as the loyal Attorney General to his brother, who never seemed to totally grasp the dimensions of the story. Justice Department Lawyer John Doar is a giant figure in the post-freedom riders killing trials. Moderate southern editors and publishers like Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and Hodding Carter of Greenville, Miss, where the three student volunteers were found murdered, kept their composure and focus despite financial and social pressure from conservatives. (Carter, in particular, began as a staunch segregationist but became more liberal).
"The Race Beat" is a valuable addition to the literature of Journalism and race relations in the United States.

Editorial Review:

An unprecedented examination of how news stories, editorials and photographs in the American press—and the journalists responsible for them—profoundly changed the nation’s thinking about civil rights in the South during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Roberts and Klibanoff draw on private correspondence, notes from secret meetings, unpublished articles, and interviews to show how a dedicated cadre of newsmen—black and white—revealed to a nation its most shameful shortcomings that compelled its citizens to act. Meticulously researched and vividly rendered, The Race Beat is an extraordinary account of one of the most calamitous periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it.

Inventing Human Rights: A History

Lynn Hunt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Extremely disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I have to admit that I find virtually incomprehensible the strong reviews that this book has received in the press (and among some other amazon reviewers). Did they really read the same book? I made it to page 127 (half way) before putting the book down in despair. It's poorly written, badly organized, and as far as I could tell offers little insight into the development of human rights. Some of the arguments presented by the author are downright bizarre. For example, early on, the author declares that widespread reading of torture and epistolarly novels "had physical effects that translated into brain changes," which then led to new ideas about human rights. Weird. The author is a widely respected academic. What happened?

Editorial Review:

"A tour de force."—Gordon S. Wood, New York Times Book Review

How were human rights invented, and how does their tumultuous history influence their perception and our ability to protect them today? From Professor Lynn Hunt comes this extraordinary cultural and intellectual history, which traces the roots of human rights to the rejection of torture as a means for finding the truth. She demonstrates how ideas of human relationships portrayed in novels and art helped spread these new ideals far and wide. Hunt also shows the continued relevance of human rights in today's world.