Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age

A personal selection of his best and most provocative writings on rights, 0 covers a vast spectrum of civil liberties issueseverything from the right to choice to the separation between church and state to the Holocaust and its long shadows. But also here, for the first time, is Dershowitzs surprising and brilliantly creative philosophy of rights, an innovative approach developed over nearly four decades and which is sure to cause controversy.

Prolific author Alan M. Dershowitz asks and answers a series of provocative questions in this engaging book. Is it okay for the government to censor its citizens? Do national-security interests ever justify the torture of suspected terrorists? "Why are there so many Jewish lawyers?" Shouting Fire is obviously an eclectic book. Parts of it have seen print previously and other sections appear here for the first time. Most readers probably won't plow straight through, but rather pick and choose the selections that carry special interest, whether it's animal rights or "the immorality of those who decline to become organ donors." Dershowitz gets the book started by outlining his own theory of rights, one that tries to steer a course between natural law and legal positivism. The really entertaining parts come later, however, when he discusses such charged topics as euthanasia, the death penalty, and how we pick federal judges. Liberals will like Shouting Fire best, but anybody who enjoys a good argument will find Dershowitz consistently engaging. --John Miller