THE AGE OF SURVEILLANCE

by Frank J. Donner ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 28, 1980

While Watergate took its toll of domestic political spying, the Supreme Court's efforts to protect CIA secrets and legislative moves to give the FBI and CIA more freedom all indicate that the respite may have been a short one. And, as civil liberties lawyer and ACLU activist Donner shows, it was only a respite. Beginning with the WW I crackdown on ""subversives"" which culminated in the 1920 Palmer Raids in which thousands of radicals were rounded up--and which marked the first triumph of J. Edgar Hoover--Donner reconstructs the process of institutionalizing a surveillance establishment in this country, encompassing the FBI, legislative committees, the CIA, and ""private"" organizations. Many of the highlights are now famous: the FBI's smear campaign against Martin Luther King, Jr.; the infiltration of New Left groups and anti-war organizations; the systematic effort to subvert the Black Panthers; and, of course, the innuendo-ridden days of McCarthyism. What ties all of this together, Donner posits, is simple anti-communism. The pathological fear of communism is so pervasive in our conservative business culture that it leads to an unending campaign against social reformers, seeking to link even mildly reformist individuals and groups to a common communist--or more amorphous ""radical""--conspiracy, complete with intimations of moral licentiousness. Donner's single common denominator seems an overstatement, despite his evidence of interconnection between the FBI, legislative committees, and right-wing ""countersubversive"" groups--like the Church League of America and the America Security Council (ASC). (The ASC, for example, is in the business of snooping on trade unionists, was founded by ex-FBI agents, and spends some of its time lobbying for defense budget increases.) But if Donner's explanation itself smacks of conspiracy theory, he has amassed a sobering record--unprecedented in its thoroughness--of systematic abuses that stifle efforts at reform and pose a continuing threat to personal rights.

Pub Date: May 28, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION