Civil War in the United States

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A brilliant analysis by John Sommerville, a professor of philosophy who testified for the defense as a non-communist expert in the Smith Act trials of the 1950’s.

Somerville, philosopher, teacher, husband, father, chose to make a stand for freedom of speech and association by testifying for those accused of communist subversion. His was a principled stand at a time when principles could lead to marginalization and job loss at best, legal harassment, and imprisonment at worst. His hope was that the rule of law would win the day and that freedom of speech could be preserved.

Somerville believed that anticommunist legal harassment was on its face contrary to the US democratic tradition and in violation of constitutional protections. Somerville convey in his testimony, documented in this book, the illogic of anticommunism and in so doing contributed to a larger discourse on peace and democratic freedoms.