Limited Focus
Caplan, Gerald
THE REVIEWERS REID BEDDOW is a free lance writer. He was formerly on the staff of The Washington Post. DANIEL AARON is a profes-sopfof English at Smith College. He wrote "Writers on the Left."...
...464 pp...
...JOSEPH SLATER is working on a history of "The Masses" and "The Liberator...
...7.95...
...Limited Focus The Noblest Cry: A History of the American Civil Liberties Union, by Charles Lam Markmann, St...
...The second is that the ACLU—with a certain enviable grace—naturally gravitates to the just side of every dispute...
...The ACLU is not presented as an organization which, like other organizations, must face problems of scarce resources and must develop strategies for selective involvement in the controversies of the day...
...Injustices are irremediable because "to put it kindly," the "mass of mankind" is indifferent to "truly moral and intellectual considerations...
...Moving from history to philosophy, author Markmann, in casual asides, characterizes Christianity as "that 2,000 year old disease" and the jury as "twelve men good and stupid...
...To the reader who still believes that there are a few criminals and traitors about, it is not enough to say, as Markmann does, that loyalty tests are wrong and cops are crooks...
...ROBERT SKLAR is an assistant professor of history and American studies at the University of Michigan...
...He is the author of "New American Gothic" and "William Faulkner: An Interpretation" and co-editor of "Breakthrough: A Treasury of Contemporary American-Jewish Literature...
...Although the existence of internal disagreement is occasionally acknowledged, the dissenter within the ACLU ¦—and, for that matter, outside it—is often viewed as either stubborn, stupid, or just plain naughty...
...The underlying problems remain and demand solutions involving the most discriminating application of governmental power...
...Martin's Press...
...Elsewhere, Markmann is not so much a dissenter from ACLU policies as an adventurer traveling far beyond them...
...MICHAEL ROGIN is an assistant professor of political science at the University of California...
...Instead, the book is narrowly confined to a clipped discussion of the facts and holdings of leading judicial opinions on civil liberty...
...He tells us, for example, that the police and prosecutors are "necessary evils" and that law enforcement "attracts only the less admirable elements of the population," men whose willingness to fabricate "charges and evidence" is limited only by "what the traffic will bear...
...The decisions are evaluated—rather emotionally, at times angrily—in terms of the ACLU position which serves as the standard of justice...
...Markmann, it must be concluded, is not so much concerned about the abuse of power as its exercise...
...What is needed is that remedies be suggested and avenues for change outlined...
...On occasion, however, Markmann himself joins the minority...
...GERALD CAPLAN is a Washington lawyer on the staff of the National Crime Commission...
...Ignored are such substantial activities as lobbying, shaping public opinion, and negotiating with public officials and private groups...
...Specially emphasized are those cases involving freedom for and from religion, and rights of travel and speech...
...They need someone to hate...
...As a history, its focus is almost exclusively on one dimension of ACLU activity—courtroom advocacy...
...Two impressions, both false, are conveyed by this exercise...
...The perplexing task of balancing the public need for information against the right of the accused to a fair trial is dismissed as a contest between "those who believe that the right of the individual to privacy and a fair trial is greater than the right of the public to be inflamed and titillated...
...After all, he adds, "every policeman everywhere is a potential fascist...
...In it there are only diseases, no cures...
...Thus, the ACLU is able to find "irrefutable truths," to reveal "totally unchallengeable" policies, and, depending upon the chapter, to contend either with "utter justice" or "impregnable justice...
...Reviewed by Gerald Caplan ? 7iewed either as a statement of per' sonal philosophy or as "a history of the American Civil Liberties Union," The Noblest Cry, by Charles Markmann, is a seriously flawed work...
...The process of resolving issues of civil liberty is not viewed as demanding reflection and deliberation, and doubt and hesitation are not deemed virtues...
...But this is not done, and that is what is most disturbing about the book...
...He teaches English at Colgate University...
...Referring to the Communist Party as the "reigning Antichrist," Markmann compares it to the Catholic Church and the "Zionist complex," finding them "equally dominated from beyond the borders—directed from, and devoted to the aggrandizement of, the Vatican and Israel, respectively...
...The first is that ACLU confronts injustice at every turn, never permitting an infringement of liberty anywhere to go unchallenged...
...IRVING MALIN teaches at City College of New York...
...For example, he criticizes the ACLU for not lambasting "the whole concept of governmental loyalty" and "every effort at 'screening' " applicants...
...One would have hoped that author Markmann was defending the freedom of all men everywhere, but, regretfully, he is an elitist concerned only with the peculiar taste of his own tiny set for "absolute freedom...
Vol. 30 • August 1966 • No. 8
