In 2016 my husband was one of a million people who donated to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as a reaction to the election of Donald J. Trump. He told me he didn't always agree with them, such as supporting hate groups rights to free speech, but he did believe in their mission of protecting civil liberties.
I had read about Ruth Ginsberg's work with the ACLU in Conversations with RBG. I wanted to know more about the history and legacy of the ACLU.
Democracy, If We Can Keep It by Ellis Cose was often fascinating, especially when dealing with the landmark cases, but some places I speed read.
Throughout American history, the federal government has enacted laws that reflected popular anxiety but threatened civil rights. As this history shows, the limiting of civil liberties has not been relegated to one time or one side of the political spectrum. Democracy is an ongoing experiment.
The ACLU has continually developed and honed its mission in response to a changing world. Its history is a history of America and the continual fight for the freedom of speech and dissent.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Democracy, If We Can Keep It: The ACLU’s 100-Year Fight for Rights in America
by Ellis Cose
The New Press
Pub Date July 7,2020
ISBN: 9781620973837
hardcover $38.99 (CAD)
from the publisher
Published to coincide with the ACLU’s centennial, a major new book by the nationally celebrated journalist and bestselling author
For a century, the American Civil Liberties Union has fought to keep Americans in touch with the founding values of the Constitution. As its centennial approached, the organization invited Ellis Cose to become its first ever writer-in-residence, with complete editorial independence.
The result is Cose’s groundbreaking Democracy, If We Can Keep It: The ACLU’s 100-Year Fight for Rights in America, the most authoritative account ever of America’s premier defender of civil liberties. A vivid work of history and journalism, Democracy, If We Can Keep It is not just the definitive story of the ACLU but also an essential account of America’s rediscovery of rights it had granted but long denied. Cose’s narrative begins with World War I and brings us to today, chronicling the ACLU’s role through the horrors of 9/11, the saga of Edward Snowden, and the phenomenon of Donald Trump.
A chronicle of America’s most difficult ethical quandaries from the Red Scare, the Scottsboro Boys’ trials, Japanese American internment, McCarthyism, and Vietnam, Democracy, If We Can Keep It weaves these accounts into a deeper story of American freedom—one that is profoundly relevant to our present moment.
