THE FBI V. THE FIRST AMENDMENT <i> by Richard Criley ($7.50, available from The First Amendment Foundation, 1313 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017).</i>

One of the founders of the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, Criley exposes the FBI’s efforts to suppress opponents of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Working from more than 132,000 pages of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, he charges the bureau with the illegal surveilance, harassment and slander of citizens who committed no crimes but who dared to oppose the committee’s notorious investigations. Although not particularly well written, this book stands as an important record of the federal government’s efforts to undermine the very freedoms it was created to preserve--valuable reading at a time when the Bill of Rights is again being threatened under the guise of preserving law and public morality.