Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files
In 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover started a surveillance of former Beatle John Lennon, who was believed to be a threat to national security. Lennon was active in leading a campaign to get younger people registered to vote against the Vietnam War, which was equated with voting against the reelection of Nixon. Wiener (history, Univ. of California, Irvine; Come Together: John Lennon and His Time) was engaged in a 14-year court battle to secure the Lennon files under The Freedom of Information Act. This book is filled with excerpts of these formerly classified documents, which reveal the idiocy of the type of information that was kept on Lennon. In many cases, these "secrets" were a matter of public knowledge and were very mundane. Wiener is to be commended for fighting the government's undemocratic use of power, but, unfortunately, his book is often dull and is only recommended for specialized collections in criminology.ATim Delaney, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NYCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.