Comments based on a reading of Perilous Times by Geoffrey R. Stone
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Joe McCarthy, democratic principles under attack.
In the 1960s the Vietnam War would again test the first amendment. The government sought to fight a war without a declaration and sought to pay for it without direct appropriations. Civil unrest, which was fiercely opposed by the government, ultimately brought a succession of cases to the Supreme Court that it used to confirm the primacy of the first amendment and the rights of individuals to hold different views and not be prosecuted or persecuted for them. In this way, the Supreme Court, which had failed miserably to uphold the first amendment rights of individuals during the McCarthy era, reasserted its constitutional right and obligation to uphold the law and to mold it in changing times.
Where does this leave us today? The world is much changed since the American flag came down in Saigon on April 30th, 1975. Today we have a determined President, who seeks, in the name of Iraqi liberation, to bring (or impose) his vision of freedom to the rest of the world. He was either mistaken or misleading in his explanation of weapons of mass destruction to justify his invasion, and he now seems willing to enlarge a war that may already be lost by sending more troops and even suggesting that an attack on Iran is not off the table. He seeks to bring the American democratic model to a people who have shown little interest in it. Democracy is a stage and there is no shortcutting the internal evolutionary process that makes democracy inevitable when the time is come but impossible if it has not. Today, in America, first amendment rights are holding and later this year protests to end this war may begin in earnest. Then, as has happened so many times before, will government push to suppress the right of protest?
Develop your own views by reading this very compelling history.
Perilous Times
By Geoffrey R. Stone
W.W. Norton Company
730 pages including extensive footnotes
$23.80 on Amazon and available at bookstores everywhere
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
