Gimme Some Truth by Jon Wiener
Tells the story of the author's fourteen-year court battle to win release of the Lennon files under the Freedom of Information Act. This work aims to delineate the ways the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations fought to preserve government secrecy, and highlight the legal strategies adopted by those who have challenged it.
"If only the New Left and the 'youth culture' that coexisted with it had been as threatening to the US government as the latter seemed to believeThat wistful thought occurs while perusing this chronicle of the Nixon administration's harassment of John Lennon for his involvement in radical causes during the early '70's. . . . For all the unintentional humor that pervades these documents, they convey a far more sobering message: how willing the government has been at times to spy on, intimidate, and harass those whom it regards as its most effective critics." * Mother Jones *
"Lennon himself isn't the main focus here. Instead, [the] long struggle to get the withheld files released is made an object lesson in the tenacity of government secrecy, which Wiener convincingly depicts as a bureaucratic habit so ingrained that the FBI (or any other government agency) treats the public's right to know—FOIA or no FOIA—as a nuisance to be circumvented whenever possible. That's true even when the materials being protected are trivial, as these turn out to be." * Washington Post *
"John Lennon's deportation case is well known. What Jon Wiener does in Gimme Some Truth is tell two virtually unknown stories—the history of the FBI role in the White House deportation campaign and the fourteen-year battle to force Hoover's heirs to release Lennon's file." * Journal of American History *
"Return with Wiener to another, not necessarily simpler but very different time when governments feared revolution by the young, fomented by a rock star. . . . The documents constitute an impressive display of wrong-headedness . . . A great period piece." * Booklist *
"An excellent account." * The Oregonian *
"Lennon himself isn't the main focus here. Instead, [the] long struggle to get the withheld files released is made an object lesson in the tenacity of government secrecy, which Wiener convincingly depicts as a bureaucratic habit so ingrained that the FBI (or any other government agency) treats the public's right to know—FOIA or no FOIA—as a nuisance to be circumvented whenever possible. That's true even when the materials being protected are trivial, as these turn out to be." * Washington Post *
"John Lennon's deportation case is well known. What Jon Wiener does in Gimme Some Truth is tell two virtually unknown stories—the history of the FBI role in the White House deportation campaign and the fourteen-year battle to force Hoover's heirs to release Lennon's file." * Journal of American History *
"Return with Wiener to another, not necessarily simpler but very different time when governments feared revolution by the young, fomented by a rock star. . . . The documents constitute an impressive display of wrong-headedness . . . A great period piece." * Booklist *
"An excellent account." * The Oregonian *
Jon Wiener is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, author of Come Together: John Lennon and His Time (1994), and a contributing editor of The Nation.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780520222465 |
| ISBN 10 | 0520222466 |
| Title | Gimme Some Truth |
| Author | Jon Wiener |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of California Press |
| Year published | 2000-01-21 |
| Number of pages | 344 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |