THE GREAT CONSPIRACY TRIAL: An Essay on Law, Liberty and the Constitution

by Jason Epstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1970

The trial and its antecedents reconstructed and interpreted, at 433 pages hardly an essay and hard to classify altogether unless as a legal casebook for laymen. Substantially a primer, as per the spelling out of a parallel apparent to the most sluggish student of American history, the Haymarket Riot and trial; explication of the grand jury system and other institutions and processes no more obscure; identification of prominent events, like Woodstock, and personalities, like James Baldwin (he's the ""black writer"" whose book a juror carries, significantly; but if one didn't know Baldwin, should that signify per se?). Assuming a disinterested, above-the-struggle stance, the author speaks for everyone and no one; he is the universal amanuensis and the invisible man. It is a presumptuous, sterile position, ultimately untenable (though never overtly relinquished) for what the conduct of the case, and the lengthy precedent-citing digressions demonstrate is the very questionable legality of the proceedings at many points. More ambitious and less fruitful is the attempt to relate them to basic concepts of law -- a dragnet of historical references and summary histories (see the quick evisceration of the American Communist Party) that finally produces. . . the ""spirit of rebellion"" among American youth. The legality of the proceedings and the constitutionality of the anti-riot law will be tested in the upper courts; the trial itself is far more interesting as related by Hayden (p. 922) and Lukacs (p. 926) who perceive it as a political and human event. This is an anomaly, inconclusive and impersonal.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION