How Patriotic is the Patriot Act? ─ Freedom Versus Security in the Age of Terrorism

In six succinct chapters, Etzioni draws on the philosophy of "responsive communitarianism" to chart a middle course rather than picking sides in the post-Sept. 11 debate of civil rights versus public safety. In response to the attacks, the George Washington U. professor writes, "There is room for much deliberation as to exactly what must be done and whether there is need for some limited trade-offs. But the starting point for such an assessment is that we are committed to being both free and secure. True patriots thus realize that one must protect the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that the essence of what it means to be patriotic is to protect our Constitution and its Bill of Rights with all of our might." Etzioni is also the author of My Brother's Keeper and The Limits of Privacy. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Amitai Etzioni is the Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies at the George Washington University in Washington D.C. He has authored twenty-two books.