OPEN GOVERNMENT — Steven Aftergood's Secrecy News blog reports that a new anthology published this week and co-edited by Dr. Susan L. Maret of San Jose State University aims to present the best that has been thought and written on the subject of the principles and practices of government secrecy policy as it has developed over the years.
Government Secrecy: Classic and Contemporary Readings presents an impressive cross-section of views, from many competing and complementary perspectives. They include the theoretical (Georg Simmel), the sociological (Max Weber, Edward Shils), the adversarial (Howard Morland), and a lot more (from William Colby, Morton Halperin, Harold Relyea, Howard Zinn, James X. Dempsey, Thomas Blanton, William Weaver, Joseph Stiglitz, Lee Strickland, Herbert Foerstel, myself and others).
It is the distillation of an entire librarys worth of material that should be of interest to students of government and political science, as well as concerned citizens who find themselves confronting official secrecy.
Those interested may wish to order this typically overpriced ($65) scholarly paperback by interlibrary loan.
