Terrorism - Policy & Prevention, Civil Rights - United States, U.S. Diplomatic Relations - General & Miscellaneous, U.S. Politics & Government - 2000-Present, U.S. Politics & Government - General & Miscellaneous
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Overview
In Terrorism and Tyranny, Bovard casts yet another jaundiced eye on Washington and the motives behind protecting "the homeland" and starting a controversial, unprovoked war with Iraq. Do you think that you're safer now that the Federal Government has a Homeland Security czar? Think that your civil liberties and privacy are still intact? Think again on both counts. For Bovard, the Bush administration's war on terror all comes down to a trampling of personal liberty that is more effective in winning elections than it is in protecting Americans. From airport security follies that protect no one to increased surveillance of individuals in their public and private lives to the dishonest, abusive roundup of detainees, the war on terrorism is taking a toll on individual liberty, and no one tells the whole story better than James Bovard.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Journalist Bovard, who has written for the Wall Street Journal and the American Spectator, among others, looks at the post-September 11 policies and actions of the government and finds them sorely lacking. (He also has a lot to say about how the government let the terrorist attacks happen in the first place.) Instead of fighting the terrorist menace, he argues, the Bush administration's cosmetic gestures reward incompetence and establish dangerous legal precedents. While dealing with civil rights issues (the Patriot Act "treats every citizen like a suspected terrorist"), the book casts a wider net, including the intertwining of the wars on drugs and terrorism and the continued bungling of flight security (additional guards at airports "did little more than take up space and consume oxygen"). Meticulously documented from contemporary news accounts, this rant against Bush's "aura of righteousness" may well leave readers as angry as its author. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.The American Lawyer
"Bovard offers far more than an infuriating record of government misconduct. His is a libertarian critique of any government's -- including ours -- inherent tendency to aggarandize and abuse its power."— Michael Stern
The Boston Globe
"[A] scathing account of the war on terrorism...Bovard is a bipartisan scourge...His lively fury at government incompetence keeps the pages turning quickly...most riveting."— Edmund Carlevale
The Washington Times
"[Bovard] has synthesized and organized a vast amount of information, yet he presents it in an acessible, reader-friendly way.... A timely, troubling book, exhaustively and impeccably researched and documented.... an important, indeed essential, guide to the complex issues with which we must now grapple."— Martin Sieff
Book Details
Published
December 8, 2003
Publisher
New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Pages
448
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781403963680