Homeland Insecurity: Aliens, Citizens, and the Challenge to American Civil Liberties in World War II

Set in World War II, but with an eye to the present and future, Homeland Insecurity offers a unique, thematic commentary on the experiences of men and women of Italian and German ancestry who were relocated, interned, or excluded. Award-winning author Stephen Fox mines government documents-especially those of the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service-to analyze the impact on detainees and their families of profiling, FBI bungling, military commissions, secret arrests, suspension of due process and habeas corpus, deportation, extraordinary rendition, second-class citizenship, and other forms of harassment.

Homeland Insecurity discusses how policymakers, the media, and the public are selective in their embrace of historical lessons. It shows how during the war, each of these groups chose the message that supported their assumptions. When this lack of judgment coincided with the prejudices and insecurities of J. Edgar Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, the result was tragic: an assault on the Bill of Rights, the ruin of countless reputations and family well-being, and lost lives.

Told through intimate stores of men and women of European ancestry, Homeland Insecurity questions whether this assault on constitutional and civil liberties can and will be repeated.