The Tree of Liberty: A Documentary History of Rebellion and Political Crime in America

Abstract

Benedict Arnold and Cesar Chavez, John Wilkes Booth and Martin Luther King, Sirhan Sirhan, the Berrigans, the Founding Fathers, and the suffragists - all have engaged in political behaviour defined at one time or another as 'criminal'. Though the fire and fury of some of these names have been dimmed by the passage of time, their protest, civil disobedience, and even rebellion are refreshed in every American generation. Now revised and expanded, this widely praised and monumental work (awarded 'Best Book in Law' by the Association of American Publishers) chronicles the uninterrupted and ongoing story of dissent, disobedience, violence, and rebellion in America, from the colonial era to the Oklahoma City bombing. New to this edition are documents dealing with acts that again challenge the limits of acceptable rebellion - documents relating to such topics as the Iran-Contra affair, the Waco siege, the capture of Manuel Noriega, church arson, the struggle for cyberspace, the Republic of Texas, and the Unabomber. Political criminals are as diverse as American society and history. They are not always violent, and some are not even activists. Their crimes might be merely failing to perform legal duties, such as swearing allegiance to the nation or ignoring the draft. rights of women to vote and workers to strike, taken for granted today, have their roots in acts that the state once prosecuted. Echoes of these past struggles may resound today in fights for prayer in school and for animal rights. Available as a single hardcover or in two paper volumes (the first ranging from colonial times through World War II, and the second dealing with the Post-War era to the New World Order). The Tree of Liberty focuses on these and other issues in documents that span an extraordinary range. Supreme Court decisions and newspapers accounts, presidential proclamations and anarchist flyers, speeches, trial transcripts, diaries, letters, laws, media broadcasts, and Internet postings - the more than 400 documents in The Tree of Life forcefully demonstrates how challenges to government and authority have shaped the nation's thought, history, and freedom.