This updated comprehensive history of the American Civil Liberties Union recounts the ACLU's stormy history since its founding in 1920 to fight for free speech and explores its involvement in some of the most famous causes in American history, including the Scopes "monkey trial," the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the Cold War anti-Communist witch hunts, and the civil rights movement. The new introduction covers the history of the organization and developments in civil liberties in the 1990s, including the U.S. Supreme Court's declaration of the Communications Decency Act as unconstitutional in ACLU v. Reno.

"[A] fusion of masterful scholarship with libertarian thinking. An indispensable access to the very essence of American ethos."—Jerzy Kosinski

"The story is so dramatic it sometimes tells itself."—New York Times Book Review

"A definitive history . . . written tightly and well."—Washington Post Book World

"A rich, textured history of the ACLU . . . brings the group and its members to life. . . . Walker's discussion of anticommunism within the ACLU is one of the best examples of his own lack of bias and his willingness to present the organization's history, warts and all."—Harvard Law Review