Donner, Frank J. The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America's
Political Intelligence System. New York: Vintage Books, 1981. 552 pages.
As a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union Project on
Political Surveillance and someone who had been identified as a Communist in
front of Congressional committees during the 1950s, it's not surprising that
Connecticut-based attorney Frank Donner (1911-1993) emerged as the foremost
scholar of U.S. domestic political surveillance. He wrote two major books on
the subject: "The Age of Surveillance" (1981) on political intelligence by
federal agencies, and "Protectors of Privilege" (1990), which looks at
surveillance by police departments in major U.S. cities.
"The Age of Surveillance" has several chapters on the FBI and Hoover,
and one each on the White House and CIA, the Internal Revenue Service,
military surveillance, kangaroo grand juries, the role of Congressional
committees, and private-sector intelligence. Most of the material in this
book concerns surveillance during the late 1960s and early 1970s, although
some historical background is included that goes back to the Palmer raids of
1919. The book is scholarly in tone, straightforward in its reporting, and
very well-documented. It received high marks from a broad range of reviewers.
ISBN 0-394-74771-2
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