In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Congress and the administration of President George W. Bush quickly took steps they believed would help protect the nation, including passage of the U.S. Patriot Act. These steps, however, had the effect of limiting civil liberties. In this excerpt from Chris Finan’s book “From the
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From 1948 through the mid-‘50s, America saw widespread efforts to limit political speech and popular culture. The former was fueled by the Red Scare and fear of Communist infiltration. The latter stemmed from public concerns about morality and potential influences on children. Comic books were among the earliest targets.Burning comic booksThe smell of burning comic
This excerpt from Christopher Finan’s “From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act” is published here with the kind permission of the author and Beacon Press. Copyright 2008. On the evening of November 7, 1919, Mitchel Lavrowsky was teaching a class in algebra to a roomful of Russian immigrants at the Russian People’s House, a building