The Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Hon. John V. Denson, editor of Costs of War and Reassessing the Presidency, will give the special guest lecture at this year's Steven Berger Seminar: Thomas DiLorenzo on Liberty and American Civilization. "Free Speech and Dissent During Wartime" examines the effect of war on civil liberties in American history.



Lecture outline:

A.         Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 - Quasi War with France and response of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions.

1. Perilous Times: Free Speech and Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism, by Jeoffrey R. Stone.
   
   
2. Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy, by William J. Watkins, Jr.
   
   
3. Voices in Dissent, by Arthur A. Ekirch, Jr. (an anthology of individualist thought in the United States from Benjamin Rush’s “Plan of a Peace Office” to Erich Fromm’s “May Man Prevail?” which challenged the reigning popular beliefs or opinions of the times.)

B.         War Between the States.

1. The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War, by Frank L. Clement.
   
   
2. Ex Parte: In the Matter Lambdin Milligan, edited by Samuel Klaus.
   
   
3. Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln, by James G. Randall.
   
   
4. Lincoln’s Wrath: Fierce Mobs, Brilliant Scandals and the President’s Mission to Destroy the Press, Jeffery Manber and Neal Dahlstrom
   
   
5. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties, by Mark E. Neeley, Jr.
   
   
6. American Bastille, by John A. Marshall.
   
   
7. The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda An Unnecessary War, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo.

C.         Spanish-American War

1. Twelve Against Empire: The Anti-Imperialists, 1898-1900, by Robert L. Beisner
   
   
2. Edward Atkinson: The Biography of an American Liberal, 182 7-1905, by Harold Francis Williamson.

D.         World War I

1. Opponents of War, 1917-1918, by H.C. Peterson and Gilbert C. Fite.
   
   
2. World War I and the Origin of Civil Liberties in the United States, by Paul L. Murphy.
   
   
3. Political Repression In Modern America: 1870 to the Present, by Robert Justin Goldstein.

E.         World War II

1. Free Speech in the Good War, by Richard W. Steele.
   
   
2. A Trial on Trial: The Great Sedition Trial of 1944, by Lawrence Dennis and Maximilian St. George.
   
   
3. The Constitution in Crisis Times, 1918-1969, by Paul L. Murphy.

F.         Vietnam War

1. Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, by Daniel Ellsberg.

G.         War on Terror - Iraq

1. The War on Our Freedoms: Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, edited by Richard C. Leone and Greg Anrig, Jr.