The Rights of Free Men - Alan Barth

 


April 24, 2019


Alan Barth's Wisdom


For nearly 30 years, the late Alan Barth, a writer on The Washington Post editorial page staff, set new and influential journalistic standards for covering the civil liberties beat. (He retired in 1972.) I often refer to his 1984 book, "The Rights of Free Men: An Essential Guide to Civil Liberties," a collection of his editorials and articles and selections from books and lectures.

At one point, he quoted Sen. William Borah: "The safeguards of our liberty are not so much in danger from those who openly oppose them as from those who, professing to believe in them, are willing to ignore them for their purposes. . . . The latter undermine the very first principles of our government and are far the more dangerous."

From a book I purchased at the Library Steps Sale today titled, "The Rights of Free Men by Alan Barth 1984.

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