In this transnational account of black protest, Nicholas Grant examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black activism into conversation with the foreign policy of both the U.S. and South African governments, this study questions the dominant perception that U.S.-centered anticommunism decimated black international activism. Instead, by tracing the considerable amount of time, money, and effort the state invested into responding to black international criticism, Grant outlines the extent to which the U.S. and South African governments were forced to reshape and occasionally reconsider their racial policies in the Cold War world. This study shows how African Americans and black South Africans navigated transnationally organized state repression in ways that challenged white supremacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The political and cultural ties that they forged during the 1940s and 1950s are testament to the insistence of black activists in both countries that the struggle against apartheid and Jim Crow were intimately interconnected.

"The great wars we have fought for the sake of liberty have been accompanied, without exception, by the most draconian assaults on individual rights. This is the theme of Michael Linfield's Freedom Under Fire, and he documents it with examples from every war since the American Revolution."--The Progressive "Linfield demonstrates conclusively, starting with the American Revolution and coming right up to the invasion of Panama, that the Bill of Rights is set aside by the government again and again, for reasons of 'national security.' He performs an important service, reminding us that liberty cannot be entrusted to the Bill of Rights or to the three branches of government, but only can be safeguarded by our own vigilance."--Howard Zinn

Examines the consequences of the war on terrorism through the loss of civil liberties in the name of homeland security.

The nation's foremost civil libertarian shines a light on the cynical exploitation of 9/11 by government officials to target immigrants and lay the groundwork for rolling back the rights of ordinary American citizens.

In each generation, for different reasons, America witnesses a tug of war between the instinct to suppress and the instinct for openness. Today, with the perception of a mortal threat from terrorists, the instinct to suppress is in the ascendancy. Part of the reason for this is the trauma that our country experienced on September 11, 2001, and part of the reason is that the people who are in charge of our government are inclined to use the suppression of information as a management strategy. Rather than waiting ten or fifteen years to point out what's wrong with the current rush to limit civil liberties in the name of "national security," these essays by top thinkers, scholars, journalists, and historians lift the veil on what is happening and why the implications are dangerous and disturbing and ultimately destructive of American values and ideals. Without our even being aware, the judiciary is being undermined, the press is being intimidated, racial profiling is rampant, and our privacy is being invaded. The "war on our freedoms " is just as real as the "war on terror " -- and, in the end, just as dangerous.

This indispensible volume includes the most up-to-date intellectual freedom guidelines, policies, and interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights.

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Author’s Introduction We are at war. Our mortal enemy has made no secret of its goal and stated aim: “eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house,” and installing a universal caliphate. Pretending that fourteen hundred years of Islamic imperialism and expansionism didn’t happen doesn’t change reality. Ayn Rand said that you can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. If you refuse to fight, you forfeit. If you forfeit, you lose. And I mean, lose everything. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Islamic supremacists are more assertive in the United States than they ever have been before. They’re building large mega-mosques in communities where the local Muslims can neither fill nor afford them. They’re demanding—and receiving—special privileges for Muslims in workplaces and special installations for Islamic prayers in public universities, as well as in airports and other public facilities. (Islamic law places Muslims in a special class, giving them rights that non-Muslims do not have.) They’re bringing back prayer in public schools—but only for Muslims: they are seeking special legal status for Islam. They’re shutting down the national debate that we urgently need to have about Islam and Islamization. They are demonizing as “bigots,” “racists,” and “Islamophobes” anyone who suggests any anti-terror measure or who asks the Muslim community in the U.S. to do something effective about the jihadists and Islamic supremacists in their midst. Fight back. The question isn’t who is going to let you, it’s who is going to stop you.

My reason for writing this book is multifaceted. First, it is a contemplative look back into a distinctive time in America's history through the lives of my two grandfathers, Maurice Elmer Drake and Archibald Vance Houston; and an examination of their service to our great country during World War II. My life intersected these two men as a result of my parent's loving choice to adopt me as their son at the time of my birth. Second, it is a critical look into our present situation as a nation, as compared to and contrasted with our past, which I undertook with a burning desire due to the personal impact of my grandfathers' service. Lastly, this book is a consideration of the future of this great country as it lies in the hands of my generation and outlines our responsibilities: to protect it and to provide our descendants with the inherited freedom that was earned in blood by the Greatest Generation over sixty years ago. Please visit www.inheritedfreedom.com for more information.