When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

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Lying has become pervasive in American lifeÂ—but what happens when the falsehoods are perpetrated by the Oval Office? As the lies told by our government become more and more intricate, they begin to weave a tapestry of deception that creates problems far larger than those lied about in the first place.

Eric AltermanÂ's When Presidents Lie is a compelling historical examination of four specific post-World War II presidential lies whose consequences were greater than could ever have been predicted. FDR told the American people that peace was secure in Europe, setting the stage for McCarthyism and the cold war. John F. KennedyÂ's unyielding stance during the Cuban missile crisis masked his secret deal with the Soviet Union. Misrepresented aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin by the North Vietnamese gave LBJ the power to start a war. Finally, Ronald ReaganÂ's Central American wars ended in the ignominy of the Iran-contra scandal.

In light of George W. BushÂ's war in Iraq, which Alterman examines in the bookÂ's conclusion, When Presidents Lie is a warningÂ—one more relevant today than ever beforeÂ—that the only way to prevent these lies is AmericaÂ's collective demand for truth.

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"One of America's leading journalists examines how government's lies alter the nation's political landscape and, inevitably, threaten its own purposes Lying has become pervasive in American life-but what happens when the falsehoods are perpetrated by the Oval Office? As the lies told by our government become more and more intricate, they begin to weave a tapestry of deception that creates problems far larger than those lied about in the first place. Eric Alterman's When Presidents Lie is a compelling historical examination of four specific post-World War II presidential lies whose consequences were greater than could ever have been predicted. FDR told the American people that peace was secure in Europe, setting the stage for McCarthyism and the cold war. John F. Kennedy's unyielding stance during the Cuban missile crisis masked his secret deal with the Soviet Union. Misrepresented aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin by the North Vietnamese gave LBJ the power to start a war. Finally, Ronald Reagan's Central American wars ended in the ignominy of the Iran-contra scandal. In light of George W. Bush's war in Iraq, which Alterman examines in the book's conclusion, When Presidents Lie is a warning-one more relevant today than ever before-that the only way to prevent these lies is America's collective demand for truth."

Customer Reviews:

Band-aids for the Republic.......2007-03-04

While I appreciate Alterman's accounts of the various costs of the official lying, I'm a little mystified at his conclusions about such lying. Alterman's stated purpose is to show both citizens and leaders in America that the political and social costs of lying can be disasterously, and sometimes upredictably, damaging. Lies have to be covered with more lies, and in so doing, those lying liars in office eventually paint themselves into a corner. Their policy options are hemmed in by their own false testimony to Congress and the American people.

In his concluding chapter, Alterman simply asks that policy-makers heed his warnings of the consequences of lying about important matters. Who are we kidding here? Alterman is asking men and women engaged in American politics to avoid short term gains through lying in favor of long term gains for telling the truth. In other words, Alterman leaves truth-telling at the discretion of our leaders. It's very much like asking that a dictator behave nicely toward those he/she rules. It's a nice idea, but it fails to address the systemic basis for official misbehavior.

The political tradition of Western systems of rule is that of shaming leaders into doing the right thing. Transparency leads to accountability; accountability can lead to a confrontation between the rhetoric of the state and the reality of its policies. This country was founded in part on the notion that our leaders could not and should not use the splendor of their offices to shield them from the scrutiny of their people. Asking presidents to be their own conscience and their own judge flies in the face of the concept of open government.

System-wide oversight is the only way to keep our government, or any government for that matter, honest. It's a shame that Alterman is so unwilling, perhaps unable, to recognize this point. Our leadership in America must be forced into being honest, or we risk being a nation of constant dupes.

I'm interested in Alterman's accounts of the consequences of Presidential lying, but all he's offering with this book is a band-aid for a gaping wound in American political life. I'm appalled at his lack of insight.

Cold War Paranoia all around! .......2007-02-19

Altho, the prevarications of earlier presidents are not included, this book weaves a fastenating tale of how one lie begets another, leaving a trail of falsehoods paving the past. The failure of FDR to truly report the agreements of the Tehran Conference, opened the door to continued deceit by the Administrations that followed down to the present day and the failed policies that developed from this course, which I am afraid has cost this country the good will of most of the rest of the world.
"Confessions of a Economic Hit Man" which I purchased simultaniously really meshes with this volumn, almost as if it were planned.

The buck stops here, but not the truth..........2007-01-21

Since the Watergate scandal, the assumption among the American press and people that the president always tells the truth has been destroyed. The first Bush's promise of "No New Taxes" and Clinton's wrangling over the Lewinski affair have only served to reinforce the image of presidents lying over various matters in order to win re-elections and settle political scores with other politicians. This book, so aptly titled, ignores these three well-known cases of presidential lying, and instead focuses on four specific cases where a president lied regarding an area of government where the president really does not need to lie; foreign policy. All four cases are unique in that in each one, the president knowingly told what he knew was wrong, even when there many who would have supported the truth, and in doing so, committed the US to go down a road more costly in terms of money, prestige, blood, and respect. The four cases are FDR's public comments on the Yalta agreement, JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis, LBJ's play on the Tonkin Gulf incidents, and Reagan's handling of the various proxy wars in Central America. In all these cases, all part of the Cold War, the president in charge chose a course of action knowing that it was the wrong course, but trusted their own ability to juggle and evade the consequences in the future. All were wrong, and either their administration, or the following one, paid the consequences.

The book presents its cases in chronological order, and is quite good at showing how one case eventually helped spawn the other, thus providing great transitions. The book is also written quite objectively, and takes into accounts sources both public and private, from both sides of the Cold War. The text flows easily and quickly and always provides enough background information to give proper context. All in all, a great book and a great addition to anyone's reading list for Cold War literature, foreign policy, presidential misdeeds, and political science.

EVEN WITH NEAR TWENTY PAGES ON W AND HIS POST TRUTH PRESIDENCY.......2006-10-28

we will need another volume devoted to his "evolving" reasons for invading Iraq or for torture or for the wall of shame, etc.

excellent historical research recently published and very affordable which with his other well researched works gives us the rest of the story and what we need to know.

George W. Bush cannot tell the truth. This book shows how and why. He is his father's son. And yet we hear he is a Christian leader . . .

The Matrix.......2006-01-25

Liberal Media star Eric Alterman has written a profoundly conservative book demonstrating that truth is sometimes better served by truth than by a bodyguard of lies.

Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Alger Hiss confected riddles and enigmas from the fog of war to hide their betrayal of eastern Europe in 1945. At Yalta, with Stalin, they codified a new world order of disorder and legitimated tyranny.

Publishers Weekly weakly asserts that the lies of Yalta created the "matrix for a half-century of anti-Soviet paranoia." Paranoia is the preferred word of leftist intellectuals who conspired a liturgy for a half-century of post-Yalta Cold War, and these are their leftist catechisms: The Cold War was created by the paranoid style of American politics. Joe McCarthy, not Joe Stalin, was the greater Cold War threat to America. Joe McCarthy, not Joe Stalin, was the personification of Cold War paranoia. We, not the imperialist and evil Soviet Union, were the Evil Empire.

Eric Alterman is a leftist intellectual, but he elides smelly leftist anti-American orthodoxies about anti-Soviet paranoia. His discussion of Yalta is (reassuring in a book about lies) truthful. His subsequent discussions of Cuban missiles, Tonkin irresolutions, and Iran-Contra are (surprising from a writer for the neo-Marxist Nation) fair. Balanced. In fact, his abstract of October 1962 is brilliant in its honesty.

When Presidents Lie is so good, in fact, that it seems churlish to quibble, but here are my caveats, quibbles & bits:

* By referring to his "district," Alterman implies in the 'Yalta' chapter that Senator Arthur Vandenberg was Congressman Vandenberg;

* In the Cuba chapter Alterman refers to Senator Kenneth Keating as Representative Kenneth Keating;

* In the same chapter Alterman invents a Speaker of the House named "W. Everett Dirksen";

* In the Contra chapter Alterman cites 1988 responses to Reagan's scandal by the Bush Administration. George H.W. didn't have an administration in 1988;

* In Endnote 39, page 326 (hardcover), Alterman writes that "In an April 7, 1945, diary entry, Harold Ickes suggests that the specter of Yalta was one of several factors that had created tension between the new president and his secretary of state." Very prescient of old Harold to be writing about our tense new president several days before we had one.

Finally, for what it's worth, FDR at Yalta was willing to pay any price and betray any principle to enlist Soviet support for the invasion of Japan. In the war-fogged context of early 1945, Soviet support was probably worth the cost of truth's betrayal.

When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

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When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences

Manufacturer: Viking Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 096568329X

When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences.(Book Review) : An article from: Parameters

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When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences.(Book Review) : An article from: Parameters
Robert Bateman
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Parameters, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 644 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences.(Book Review)
Author: Robert Bateman
Publication: Parameters (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Page: 153(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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When Presidents Lie : A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences
Eric Alterman
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJDBEY

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When Presidents Lie: A History of Official Deception and Its Consequences
Kathryn Harrison
Manufacturer: Viking Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W3T4UW

Book Description

Gettysburg Battlefield is the definitive illustrated history of the largest and deadliest military campaign ever waged in the Western Hemisphere. It was fought 140 years ago this July, in the farmlands of Pennsylvania. Years in the making, it draws together the most complete collection of Gettysburg imagery ever published in a single volume along with a robust narrative. The author takes the reader on a day-by-day journey through the battle, illustrated throughout with more than 480 photographs, many of them rare, including shots of Robert E. Lee and George Meade. Two visual features of this book are particularly compelling: Period photographs of key battlefield sites - taken just as the guns stilled - are juxtaposed with images of those same sites today. Three-dimensional maps were created especially for this book and offer a distinctive perspective on military strategy. Essays by civil war experts and a foreword by historian James M. McPherson complete this handsome and authoritative history. An essential addition to the Civil War library, Gettysburg Battlefield is a compelling chronicle of a legendary conflict and the ultimate pictorial record.

Customer Reviews:

A visual remembrance..........2007-06-05

I first visited Gettysburg in November 2005 and I've been fascinated by this historic battlefield ever since. Some of it may be due to the fact that my great-great-grandfather fought there and was wounded on the second day of fighting in the Wheatfield. In touring Gettysburg today, it's often difficult to get a feel for just how bad the carnage was. Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History by David J. Eicher is probably the best means to see Gettysburg through the eyes of Civil War soldiers.

Eicher includes hundreds of photographs that show scenes from Gettysburg, both before the battle and immediately afterward. But then he also includes modern day photos taken of the same locations from the same angles. These before and after pictures are haunting. It is hard to look at the peaceful Devil's Den of today and imagine the violence that occurred there. Eicher also includes dozens of maps as well as portraits of key figures.

What makes Gettysburg Battlefield more than just a picture book is the commentary. In addition to Eicher's own narrative, he includes 15 different essays from 14 guest Gettysburg experts. Eicher was looking for little known stories about this famous battle. There were two that I found interesting. One involved the NY 45th Infantry. Many of these German-Americans were captured and then transported to Southern prisons. Their monument is off the beaten path next to a soccer field. Another recounts the saga of The God Tree--one of a dozen witness trees that still survive from 1863.

One thing kept me from giving Gettysburg Battlefield five stars, and that is that fact that there are a number of errors. But overall, the photographs are the main reason I purchased this book and they alone are well worth the expense. This truly is a "visual remembrance."

FORTY-NINE Errors and Problems with this Poor Book.......2007-01-15

This book is full of errors. Here are some, but not all:

P.12 Buford commanded a division not a brigade
P.17 A.A. Humphreys is neither a major general in this image nor at Gettysburg. He was a brigadier.
P.21 Meade took command three, not four days before the battle.
P.22 There were eight Union Corps commanders at Gettysburg, not seven.
P.30 Sykes did not command all the regular army infantry units at Gettysburg. There were US sharpshooters in the 3rd Corps.
P.32 Buford commanded a division, not a brigade, at Gettysburg.
P.34 and 141 The same image is used twice in the book with slightly different captions.
P.41 Image was recorded in 1867, not 1865.
P.47 The photo of the railroad cut at Gettysburg is in fact a photo of Fredericksburg.
The author even provides a modern view of the site at Gettysburg!
P.50 Buford's monument was erected in 1892 not 1895
P.60 Early's Division did not have nearly 6,300 men at Gettysburg, it's closer to 5,500.
P.63 The light bulb atop the Peace Light memorial was replaced in the 1980s not the 1990s.
P.68 Robert E. Rodes was killed outright at Third Winchester, not mortally wounded.
P.77 John Burns and Abraham Lincoln did not attend services in Gettysburg. It was a political rally.
P.78 The view from the square to the Courthouse, is south, not west.
P.82 This image was recorded in July 1886 not c. 1861-1865. More than TWENTY YEARS off.
P.83 The photo was taken in 1886, not "ca. 1861-1865."
P.84 View was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.85 View was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.101 The Confederate attack did not swing past the Sherfy house "on the way toward" Devil's Den.
P.112 Confederate movements against the Round Tops did not occur to the north of Devil's Den.
P.112 The other branch of Plum Run fronts Cemetery, not Seminary Ridge.
P.113 Van Horne Ellis was not a fireman before the war; he was a Sea Captain, amongst other things.
P.117 The map key places the fighting at Devil's Den at least a mile away from where it took place.
P.117 On p. 126, Eicher calls it "unfortunate" when Samuel Crawford's middle name is misspelled, yet he spells Vannoy Manning's first name as "Vanney." Unfortunate, indeed.
P.121 The John T. Weikert House is not a wartime structure.
P.122 The photo was taken from Houck's Ridge not from "the area of the Stony Hill." It was recorded in the 1880s, not "ca. 1860s." Any Gettysburg author should know that there were no monuments on the field outside the cemetery until 1878. As to location, to not know that Rose Woods would be in the photographer's way from the Stony Hill to the Round Tops demonstrates a significant lack of understanding about Gettysburg.
P.123 This image is referred to as a variant of that on page 121, yet author is uncertain whether it was Mathew Brady's crew. Of course it is--it's a variant.
P.123 Ellis Spear was a Captain, not a Lt. Col. at Gettysburg. Off by two ranks.
P.124 The 93rd Pennsylvania Monument pictured was erected in 1884, not 1888.
P.128 The 1st Texas fought with the 15th Georgia in Rose Woods, not the 15th Alabama, which was on Little Round Top. Even the most popular regiments at Gettysburg are subject to inaccuracies in this book.
P.131 The white buildings in the distance, clearly on Seminary Ridge, are not those of George W. Weikert which were near Rose Woods.
P.132 The view looks east-southeast, not northeast.
P.135 The map key places the fighting at Devil's Den at least a mile away from where it took place.
P.135 Dan Sickles did not visit his leg at the Army Medical Museum every year.
P.138 and 166 There are two of the EXACT same historic photos of Little Round Top in two different places labeled as different photos. There are TWO DIFFERENT MODERN views roughly 150 feet apart for the SAME PHOTO! Finally, he labels one of the views as July 6, 1863, and the other as July 6 or 7, 1863. How could someone writing a book of this sort not know that he had two of the exact same photo? How can there be two different moderns?
P.139 The map key places the fighting at Devil's Den and Little Round Top at least a mile away from where it took place.
P.142 In speculating that this image is among the last recorded by Gardner's crew at Gettysburg, the date given is July 6, 1863. Yet, elsewhere in the book, Gardner views are dated as late as July 9 (p.78).
P.143 The two images were not recorded from different angles. They are the same angle but with different cameras.
P.145 Photographer (Gardner), location of the image (crest of LRT) and month (July) of both images are all known. All are listed as questionable or "unknown" in the book. Incredibly the famous "Warren Rock" and the distinctive tree next to it appear in the image on the right.
P.146 The photo labeled as Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is in fact it is a photo of General Edwin Stoughton. Of all of the people to not recognize at Gettysburg Joshua Chamberlain!
P.158 While so many modern images are poorly recorded in this book, this one is among the weakest. See pp. 157, 161, 167, 172, 179 and others for more flawed examples.
P.169 This book claims to be definitive yet is missing many, many, known images of wartime Gettysburg. On this page, this series is represented by but three of five different, known images.
P.195 Top view was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.195 Bottom view was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.201 Top left view was taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.202 All four historic Tyson views on this page were taken in 1867 not 1865.
P.212 The Copse of Trees is in the wrong place. It almost seems a deliberate effort to make mistakes on Gettysburg's most well-known features.

The photo angles are poor........2006-04-28

I have visited the Gettysburg battlefield on numerous occaisions. Everytime that I'm there I bring with me many, many photographs from Brady, Gardner etc. As a result, after hours and hours of exploration, I've been able to recreate 'then and now' photos that are far more accurate than what this book offers. The 'now' photos in this book are not lined up accurately with the 'then' photos. Sure, it is the same area, but with a little extra effort they certainly could have recreated the angles that Brady, Gardner, etc. had shot from. Yet, while the photos are definatley disappointing, this book still provides a wealth of information about the Battlefield. I'm sure that any novice will enjoy this book. If you really want to see what it looks like now, however, you will need to go there for yourself, or explore more specific works.

Great "then and now" book.......2005-11-01

This book is much better than most of the before and after pictorials. These people giving this a one star are obviously friends of another author, or just have a personal grudge. Mistakes are always made in books, that is why people have second additions, etc. Who cares if there is one picture of Fredericksburg in the book. One picture out of 500 makes the book a total failure. I think the only failure here is the idiot who wrote the bad review. Excellent book and you know it!!!!!!!!

Solid "Then and Now" Pictorial History of Gettysburg.......2005-07-29

Eicher has done a mostly superb job despite a few errors here and there. The Chamberlain one has been pointed out, and in Ted Alexander's essay on the first Union soldier to die at Gettysburg, he points out that a Cpl. William Rihl of the New York Lincoln Cavalry was killed at Fleming's farm on June 22, 1863 in action with Jenkins' Confederate Cavalry.

On the other hand, the masterful Noah Andre Trudeau in his: "Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage" notes that Private George Sandoe, of Captain Robert Bell's Pennsylvania cavalry squadron, was the first to die at Gettysburg, killed on the 26th,on the town's western outskirts, while valiantly trying to stop the onslaught of Lige White's cavalry, attached to John Gordon's division of Jubal Early's corps.

I have always been intrigued by the story of Bell's little cavalry squadron, which tried to stop Gordon's initial march into the town, and was scattered for its efforts. Bell and his men seem to drop off the pages of history, save for Trudeau's work.

Eicher also seems to subscribe to the same criticisms of Alfred Pleasonton (the Union Cavalry commander)that Edward Longacre, and more recent historians have seem to suggest. Still Pleasonton performed very capably and competent when he was allowed to by Meade. Meade didn't like cavalry, and as an engineer officer inspecting and improving lighthouses along America's eastern coast before the war, had developed a dislike for Pleasonton's father, a government bureacrat. Simply stated, Pleasonton didn't not have the slack that Phil Sheridan had, later on, under Grant. Eicher also suggests that the doomed Elon Farnsworth never received his Brigadier General commission when he was killed in Kilpatrick's senseless cavalry charge in the vicinity of the Round Tops immediately following Pickett's repulse. When nearly all other sources, including Longacre, suggested that he had.

The Cavalry actions on the third day are as usual, minimally covered. The brisk fight between Custer and Stuart so recently well-covered in Tom Carhart's "Last Triumph" at least rates an two-page essay. The Farnsworth charge only merits two paragraphs.

Eicher was wise to invite fellow Civil War Historians to provide a number of very well-written essays, and while all of them are exceptional, the beginning one written by James McPherson, arguably our greatest living historian, is a compelling one that urges all Americans who love their history to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield and get that sense of what is was like then.

Photograph choices are very, very good. Some of Eicher's photographs could have easily been taken by anyone with a Kodak instamatic and a good printer, but overall they still convey very well the now as opposed to the then. Many of the "old" photographs collected seem to have been printed with a deliberately "grainy" image - note the photo of Buford and his staff, or the remarkable one of Lee near the beginning of the book. I happen to like the effect; some other readers might not.

Well-worth it as an addition to your Civil War bookshelf if purchased at amazon's nice bargain price, and as another reviewer said, would blend in well if you have artifacts of the battle, as I do. Still, I wouldn't pay the full or the paperback price.

Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History

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Gettysburg Battlefield: The Definitive Illustrated History
David Eicher
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books Llc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLYBLO

Book Description

From Justice Department officials seizing people's homes based on mere rumors, to the I.R.S. and its master plan to prohibit the nation's self-employed from working for themselves, to the perpetrators of the Waco siege, government officials across the land are tearing the Bill of Rights to pieces. And, with the Clinton administration calling for sweeping new governmental power over the nation's environment, health care, and workers, the plight of American liberty is guaranteed to worsen. Today's citizen is ever more likely to violate some unknown law or regulation and be placed at the mercy of an administrator or politician hungering for publicity. And, unfortunately, the only way many government agencies can measure their "public service" is by the number of citizens they harass, hinder, restrain, or jail. Lost Rights provides a highly entertaining and outrageous analysis of the plight of contemporary Americans, beaten into submission by a government that has become a horrible parody of the Founding Fathers's dream.

Customer Reviews:

Destruction of America.......2007-06-09

Behind the scenes plans for the destruction of the United States and the men who are involved.

A potent and well documented book. A must read for every citizen concerned about growing government.......2006-03-07

With Lost Rights, James Bovard follows the increase in the size of the federal government in the 20th century and demonstrates how, with each successive layer of new laws and bigger government, the citizens are being coerced in ways that would make the Founders roll over in their graves.

With a style that masterfully intersperses meticulously documented incidents with his own dry, acerbic and often mocking wit, the author demonstrates how an overabundance of laws are increasingly written, not by Congress, but by bureaucrats and regulatory agencies, who see their jobs as a way to tyrannically impose their personal ideologoies on American citizens and business with little regard to the cost or burden. And all too often, the rules they write have the express intention of favoring one party or destroying another.

Bovard gets to the root of governmental expansion. Namely, overstating a problem is the fast track to more fame, more money, and more power for many politicians and bureaucrats. They have every incentive to exaggerate a problem, foster new legislation, and boast about being proactive. This goes on perpetually until nearly every area of life is subject to some kind of government oversight and regulation. And it's so pervasive, most have become immune and oblivious to it.

The author shows, in one frightening anecdote after another, how the government intends to prevail against the citizen one way or another. The outcome of bureacratic hearings are predetermined. Citizens going up against the IRS are presumed guilty and are subject to property forfeitures until they prove otherwise. Citizens who have property (especially cash) seized by police under the thinnest of pretexts stand little chance of ever getting it back, and the procedural cost of doing so negates the effort.

These are just a few of the injustices detailed in Lost Rights that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief and seething in anger. Others include the abuse of teachers unions and their disdain for parental involvement, the futility of the war on drugs and pornography, the failure of public housing, the subjugating effect of government subsidies, and the power to destroy that comes with the power to tax. To be fair, Bovard does inform the reader parenthetically that some of the most egregious abuses of government have been rejected by the courts.

Time after time, Bovard shows that the best governmental intentions go awry and the realities rarely live up to the promises. Government also has a knack for not anticipating the secondary (often negative) consequences of their policy proposals. Bovard calls for us to start judging government programs more by how effective they have been rather than the flowery rhetoric that always accompanies a new proposal.

For those who favor a more laissez faire government, and want to know just how corrupt, inept, and coercive our government has become, Bovard is a treasure. He convincingly makes the case that the more laws we have, the more injustice increases.

Bovard's one weakness is a flaw common among libertarian advocates and that is he weighs the benefit of every policy on a "net good" basis. If government intervention in a problem doesn't result in an appreciable postive change, the government program should be cast aside. But such a conclusion doesn't examine whether, in the absense of the program in question, would the problem be even worse? Such suggestions also ignore political reality. Right or wrong, people expect the government to "do something" about perceived problems whether it will be effective or not. The solution is obviously to have a more informed and skeptical populace. If everyone in America read this book, it would be a good start.

Bovard's style can be a little too bombastic and bellicose for some who might be of a more left/moderate persuasion. He opens himself up criticism by seeing the world in a very binary fashion with almost no shades of grey. Many will say he's throwing the baby out with the bathwater every time he sees injustice on the part of government. But for the most part, his outrage is justified, as well as infectious, and his anecdotes are faithfully documented.

One of the saddest, and all too real, insights Bovard comes to is about the drama that unfolded in Waco, Texas in 1993 at the Branch Davidian property. Bovard concludes, and I believe he is correct, that the show of force at Waco was intended primarily to send a message, "Obey the government or else." Only after the fact did the FBI admit most of the justifications made contemporaneously for raiding the compound were completely fabricated.

Everyone should read Mr. Bovard's first page.... .......2006-01-19

Click on the link below and then click to the first page and just browse the first page. If you read and understand the second paragraph, you may experience an epiphany.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0312123337/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-0532456-2244721#reader-page

Darned thing just keeps growing and growing and..........2004-12-29

James Bovard's treatise on the gradual ebb of liberty in modern America is a fair warning bell. It is disturbing to note that this book was published well before 9/11 and the spate of domestic civil-rights clampdowns that it spawned. Though the chapters are ostensibly devoted to specific subjects (unfair taxation, search and seizure violations, gun control legislation, "drug war" atrocities, etc.), there is considerable overlap. The central premise really isn't that hard to miss: government is getting too big and too powerful, and everyone is in danger, no matter which part of the political spectrum you choose to place yourself. It's hard not to feel a growing sense of anger and frustration as one goes along: is there any area of personal or business life that can't be controlled by the state? Bovard examines affirmative-action laws, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), the proliferation of gun control legislation, over-regulation of the marketplace (such as government bylaws that force employers to conform to a minimum wage and deal out harsh penalties for noncompliance), licensing and monopoly laws, asset forfeiture laws that enable government to seize your property under any the vaguest of unsubstantiated suspicions, and the thorny issue of "eminent domain" (the practice by which local governments may seize private property so it can be allocated to other private individuals who want it for profit-making purposes but want a way around paying market prices to acquire it). The state has indeed become an overwhelmingly interventionist, controlling force, and there is little evidence that this trend is about to slow down anytime soon. Bovard closes with a final disturbing statistic: Americans must today obey _thirty times_ as many laws as their great-grandfathers had to obey at the turn of the last century, and an ever-greater proportion of the enforcement and regulation carried on by government is _not specifically authorized by statute_, but is instead made up by unelected bureaucrats as they go along.

A Problematic Book.......2004-11-08

This book provides countless examples of people and businesses damaged or threatened by governmental excess, corruption and abuse of power. The examples are often egregious and frightening. Some are familiar, like the kinds of things seen on 60 Minutes. Others are eye-opening. There is enough documentation and familiarity to trust the book's general thrust.

Some of the rhetorical tactics used in the book are questionable. For example, the author will write a paragraph dealing with excessive govermental laws and regulations, and the paragraph will include not just laws that are on the books, but bills that have been considered and rejected. I find this tactic unnecessarily inflammatory, given the amount of actual material that the author claims to exist. Why talk about unfair and coercive laws that don't even exist if there are so many that already do?

The book does not provide balance. The central idea can be found in the following quote:

"The larger government becomes, the more coercive it will be -- almost regardless of the intentions of those who advocate a larger government."

This statement may be true, and numerous examples from the book certainly bolster it. But there are other sides to the argument as well. Since the author doesn't present them, he hasn't refuted them. And since he hasn't refuted them, has he really proven his case? Bovard never presents the other side --that government can actually help and protect people.

It's easy to argue against abusive forfeiture laws and tyrannical law enforcement agencies -- they leave plenty of innocent victims in their wake. But if you're such a believer in non-government, why not talk about Social Security, Medicare or popular government programs that have helped and continue to help many people? The book sets up easy targets and knocks them down, but it shies away from the hard questions.

The book does not provide analysis of the complex world we live in. It presents "power" as a kind of seesaw that totters up or down. On one side sits the government, and on the other, "the people". Any loss of weight or power on one side creates a corresponding gain on the other.

Reality is much more complex. For example, take the legal battle between the US Government and Microsoft. The Government exercised its power against Microsoft through investigations and lawsuits, thus weakening the company and preventing it from conducting business as it chose.

According to Bovard, this would constitute a loss of liberty from "the people" to "the Government." But since Microsoft was arguably excercising its market power to enrich itself at the expense of "the people" (less choice, less innovation, higher prices), the net loss of power from Microsoft to the Government was arguably a gain for "the people".

As another example, take the decision by the FCC to "deregulate" media ownership, thus allowing concentrated ownership of media outlets. According to polls, public opinion, public comment and public hearings, "the people" did not want media ownership deregulated. The Government's
divestment of power to regulate in this area will result in tremendous concentration of media ownership in a few private hands, and arguably, corresponding losses of choice, innovation, accountability and diversity in media. All in all, a net loss for "the people." The book simply does not ever even consider the protection for "the people" that comes from government laws, regulations and enforcement.

Because the book lacks any in-depth analysis of the role of government in society, it ultimately lacks intellectual legitimacy. If all governmental power is power removed from the people, and if this is necessarily "coercive", and if bigger government is necessarily worse and more coercive, then the logical extension of this argument, taken to Bovard's rational conclusion, is that we should have no government at all. None. Period. End of sentence. Why give coercive power over yourself to another?

Some communities in some parts of the world work this way. If someone hurts you, steals from you, kills your friend or relative, it is your responsibilty to remedy the situation. There is no rule of law as we know it.

But Bovard never advocates this result. He clearly likes and wants some amount of government. He wants a police force to punish murderers and other criminals, and he wants an army to defend his country. He wants intellectual property laws that enable him to collect royalties on his books. He wants government systems to adjudicate those laws, and he wants government remedies to punish people who might steal from him. He wants a tax system coercive enough to ensure that he gets all of these things at public expense.

In other words, he wants the amount of government that he wants. Okay, but so does everyone else, from George W. Bush to Ted Kennedy. What makes Bovard's vision of the "right" amount of Government any more valid then yours, mine or Timothy McVeigh's? Bovard launches one anti-government broadside after another, but he never considers the types of difficult questions necessary for an honset debate.

The book also lacks historical perspective. Okay, there is some historical information about where zoning laws came from, and there's a little social commentary about forfeiture laws and environmental protection regulations. But precious little. For the most part, onerous, nonsensical and tyrannical laws are treated as if they dropped from the sky and appeared wholly formed in our nation's legal and political system.

But as every 6th grader knows, that's not where laws come from. They come from legislators and other government officals who are often enough responding to the will of "the people". F0r every ridiculous or tyrannical law that Bovard mentions, there was some set of democratically-elected legislators who supported and passed it and some majority of citizens who elected them.

In other words, at some point, we, the people, have to stop blaming "government" for creating unwanted laws, and we have to take some responsibility for how and why we are allowing and supporting it. Bovard doesn't see any individual responsibilty on the part of the people. He writes as if "government" were an occupying force that dropped out of the sky one day and simply took over.

Given that the book lacks honest debate and critical analysis, it also lacks solutions. Bovard presents a lot of evidence that we have too much government in our lives. But he never articulates what to do about it. Because there is no analysis, there is no criteria on which to decide which laws are good, which are bad, and why. The book may be a "wake up call", but if you wake up and accomplish nothing, is that any more productive than remaining asleep?

Lost Rights, the Destruction of American Liberty

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Lost Rights, the Destruction of American Liberty
James Bovard
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SAPRNC

Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty.: An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly

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Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty.: An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly
C. Lowell Harriss
Manufacturer: Center for the Study of the Presidency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Center for the Study of the Presidency on March 22, 1998. The length of the article is 1039 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty.
Author: C. Lowell Harriss
Publication: Presidential Studies Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1998
Publisher: Center for the Study of the Presidency
Volume: v28 Issue: n2 Page: p469(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty
James Bovard
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OT4Y0O

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