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The Four Freedoms under Siege
The Clear and Present Danger from Our National Security State
 Marcus Raskin, Robert Spero

0-275-98911-9/978-0-275-98911-8

Description
Addresses the hard questions of individual freedom versus national security that are on the minds of Americans of all political stripes and brings together the pivotal events, leaders, policies, and fateful decisions that have kept citizens on a roller-coaster ride from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush and no doubt beyond.

Reviews:
-Raskin and Spero take off from Franklin Delano Roosevelts proclamation of the Four Freedoms in his annual message to Congress, January 6, 1941 and apply them to present day America. These four freedoms are the freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It is not a pretty picture. It can be changed, and this book contains wise words for such liberations. —Ralph Nader's Holiday Reading List Nader.org
-While George W. Bush proclaims regularly that his War on Terror is being fought for the advance of freedom, Raskin and Spero argue that his expansion of the national security state (a term first used by Raskin to describe Cold War America in 1967) is in fact undermining the four freedoms delineated by Franklin Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union address: freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. They touch upon a wide range of issues in making their argument, including the PATRIOT Act, misconceptions about terrorism, voting rights violations, the religious right, economic inequality, and the mobilization of fear in the name of the War on Terror. —Reference & Research Book News
-Raskin and Spero present a powerful indictment of the seemingly inexorable march of the US toward becoming a national security state in the latter half of the 20th century and most dramatically since 9/11. America has always had a tendency toward triumphalism and militarism, but in recent decades, and particularly under the current administration, these tendencies have increasingly undercut the core values of democracy and personal freedom. The reader is led through the government's systematic rejection of Roosevelt's Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The authors decry unprecedented government secrecy and monitoring of the populace, increased poverty and economic disparity, and perpetual state of fear promoted by those in power--multiple attributes of a failed imperial state....[t]he authors' alternative vision of American democracy is visionary and serves as a useful foil for criticism of the existing state. Recommended. General readers and undergraduates. —Choice
About the Author
Marcus Raskin is the distinguished fellow and cofounder of the Institute for Policy Studies, the first think tank of its kind. He is also Professor of Policy Studies at George Washington University, a member of the editorial board of the Nation, and author or editor of 20 books, including In Democracy's Shadow (2005), edited with Carl Le Van, and Liberalism (2004).

Robert Spero, author of The Duping of the American Voter: Dishonesty & Deception in Presidential Advertising, served with the Agency for International Development during the Kennedy administration and the President's domestic Peace Corps group. He is a journalist (Present Tense, the Progressive), consultant to international service organizations, and former advertising executive (Ogilvy & Mather).
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0-275-98911-9 978-0-275-98911-8 The Four Freedoms under Siege £34.95    
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