Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America

Jay Feldman

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, Nov 13, 2012 - History - 416 pages

A riveting and unsettling history of the assault on civil rights and liberties in America—from World War I to the War on Terror—by the acclaimed author of When the Mississippi Ran Backwards.
 
In this ambitious and wide-ranging account, Jay Feldman takes us from the run-up to World War I and its anti-German hysteria to the September 11 attacks and Arizona’s current anti-immigration movement. What we see is a striking pattern of elected officials and private citizens alike using the American people’s fears and prejudices to isolate minorities (ethnic, racial, political, religious, or sexual), silence dissent, and stem the growth of civil rights and liberties. Rather than treating this history as a series of discrete moments, Feldman considers the entire programmatic sweep on a scale no one has yet approached. In doing so, he gives us a potent reminder of how, even in America, democracy and civil liberties are never guaranteed.

Contents

• The Fine Gold of Untainted Americanism: 3
• A Democracy Gone Mad: 17
• The Heel of the Government: 34
• A Peculiar Sort of Mental Hysteria: 50
• The Gravest Menace to the Country: 66
• A Skimming of the Great American MeltingPot: 85
• A Lawless Government: 106
• Grave Abuses and Unnecessary Hardships: 129
• The Utmost Degree of Secrecy: 147
• A Jap Is a Jap: 164
• Scare Hell Out of the Country: 186
• A Neurotic Nightmare: 208
• There Were Many Wrecked Lives: 236
• There Are No Rules: 253
• We Never Gave It a Thought: 275
• An Aggressive Assault on Civil Liberties: 299
• Notes: 311
• Bibliography: 339
• Acknowledgments: 355
• Index: 357

About the author

Jay Feldman is also the author of the critically acclaimed When the Mississippi Ran Backwards. He is a widely published freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Smithsonian, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Gourmet, The New York Times, and many other national, regional, and local publications. He has written for television and the stage, and is the author of the novel Suitcase Sefton and the American Dream.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, Surveillance, and Secrecy in Modern America
• Author: Jay Feldman
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2012
• ISBN: 0307388239, 9780307388230
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / 20th Century; Political Science / Civil Rights; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism