Defending the Public's Enemy : The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark / Lonnie T. Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Lonnie T., Jr., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clark, Ramsey, 1927-2021.

Clark, Ramsey.

Lawyers--United States--Biography.

Lawyers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

What led a former United States Attorney General to become one of the world's most notorious defenders of the despised? Defending the Public's Enemy examines Clark's enigmatic life and career in a quest to answer this perplexing question. The culmination of ten years of research and interviews, Lonnie T. Brown, Jr. explores how Clark evolved from our government's chief lawyer to a strident advocate for some of America's most vilified enemies. Clark's early career was enmeshed with seminally important people and events of the 1960s: Martin Luther King, Jr., Watts Riots, Selma-to-Montgomery March, Black Panthers, Vietnam. As a government insider, he worked to secure the civil rights of black Americans, resisting persistent, racist calls for more law and order. However, upon entering the private sector, Clark seemingly changed, morphing into the government's adversary by aligning with a mystifying array of demonized clients—among them, alleged terrorists, reputed Nazi war criminals, and brutal dictators, including Saddam Hussein. Is Clark a man of character and integrity, committed to ensuring his government's adherence to the ideals of justice and fairness, or is he a professional antagonist, anti-American and reflexively contrarian to the core? The provocative life chronicled in Defending the Public's Enemy is emblematic of the contradictions at the heart of American political history, and society's ambivalent relationship with dissenters and outliers, as well as those who defend them.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

Prologue

Introduction: A Puzzling Journey

1. Baby Bubba

2. The Preacher

3. “Language of the Unheard”

4. Taking Poor Black People Seriously

5. “I Am a Man”

6. “Hell No, We Won’t Go!”

7. Battling on the Inside

8. Taking the Battle to the Outside

9. Black Is Beautiful

10. Anti-Semite?

11. Saddam Hussein

12. Cold Pizza

13. Like Father, Like Son

Conclusion: “Carry On . . . and Kick Up Some Dust”

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9781503609174

1503609170

OCLC:

1178769663