State Secrets; Police Surveillance in America

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974. First Edition [stated]. Presumed First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Frances J. Elfenbein (Jacket Design). 22 cm. xi, [1], 333, [3] pages. Some chips, edge tears, wear and soiling to DJ. Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff (June 10, 1925 - January 7, 2017) was an American historian, novelist, music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media. Hentoff was a columnist for The Village Voice from 1958 to 2009. Following his departure from The Village Voice, Hentoff became a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, continued writing his music column for The Wall Street Journal, which published his works until his death. He often wrote on First Amendment issues, vigorously defending the freedom of the press. Hentoff was formerly a columnist for: Down Beat, JazzTimes, Legal Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Progressive, Editor & Publisher and Free Inquiry. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker, Derived from a Kirkus review: Shoe-heel recorders, laser-beam pickups of distant conversations, algebraic dossiers, and multitudes of informers -- this group of essays investigates the scope of First Amendment violations by the government. Egleson, a former SDS officer, is preoccupied with documenting the number of agents in the combined local police forces plus the FBI and Army Intelligence, rather than with the purpose or direction of police-state surveillance. He shows no awareness of ongoing counterinsurgency work on the part of the police vs. radical organizations, urban gangs, etc. The book also contains annotated excerpts from ""the Media ides,"" those FBI records from the Media, Pa. office which mysteriously became public. They show intelligence-gathering, along with some FBI foibles and some cases abandoned. Nat Hentoff contributes a ""they're all over"" piece; Paul Cowan examines the acquitting Harrisburg Seven jury, and blasts the grand jury process. The reprints of the Media papers alone mark a blow against the gumshoes.