The Torment of Secrecy
The Background and Consequences of American Secruity Policies
Published on 1. February 1996
259 pages
979-8-216-36297-5 (ISBN)
Description
Edward Shils's The Torment of Secrecy is one of the few minor classics to emerge from the cold war years of anticommunism and McCarthyism in the United States. Mr. Shils's "torment" is not only that of the individual caught up in loyalty and security procedures; it is also the torment of the accuser and judge. This essay in sociological analysis and political philosophy considers the cold war preoccupation with espionage, sabotage, and subversion at home, assessing the magnitude of such threats and contrasting it to the agitation-by lawmakers, investigators, and administrators-so wildly directed against the "enemy." Mr. Shils's examination of a recurring American characteristic is as timely as ever. "Brief...lucid... brilliant."-American Political Science Review. "A fine, sophisticated analysis of American social metabolism."-New Republic. "An excitingly lucid and intelligent work on a subject of staggering importance...the social preconditions of political democracy."-Social Forces.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
File size
12,97 MB
ISBN-13
979-8-216-36297-5 (9798216362975)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/1996
Ivan R Dee, Inc
€25.20
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Edward A. Shils was distinguished service professor of sociology at the University of Chicago until his death in 1995. He founded the journal Minerva and co-founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and was widely regarded as one of the world's most influential social thinkers.
