The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America


Hardcover: 1141 pages
Publisher: Sharpe Reference (October 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0765680637
ISBN-13: 978-0765680631

From Booklist
This reference set contains more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries on terms, historical documents and events, constitutional provisions, individuals, and associations that have been important in the struggle for civil liberties. It is intended to complement The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America, published in 1998. Editors Schultz and Vile are professors at Hamline University and Middle Tennessee State University, respectively, and are joined here by some 200 academic contributors.

The entries are short, a page or two in length, and end with suggestions for further reading. The "Topic Finder" in volume 1 indicates the range of coverage--there are entries grouped under "Academic Freedom and Education," "Campaign Contributions," "Criminal Procedures," "Laws," "Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court," "Property Rights," and "Wartime and Terrorism," to name just a few broad topics. Among the timely entries one will find are Airport searches, DNA testing, Electronic eavesdropping, Hate crimes, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, and Ten Commandments: Posting. Numerous entries cover people, from John Locke to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to John Ashcroft, who have helped frame the debate about civil liberties in one way or another. Cross-references are found throughout the encyclopedia. The lengthy introduction discusses the history of American civil liberties from its roots to the twenty-first century. In addition to the "Topic Finder," the first volume contains a case index. Appendixes at the end of the third volume include a few primary documents, a chronology of important civil liberties milestones from 1215 to 2004, and an extensive bibliography. Some entries are accompanied by black-and-white illustrations.

No other reference source truly duplicates this set, which is recommended for high-school and undergraduate collections and public libraries as good introductory material.

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