Title: The torment of secrecy
First published: 1956
Description: Edward Shils's The Torment of Secrecy is one of the few minor classics to emerge from the cold war years of anticommunism and McCarthyism in the United States. Mr. Shils's "torment" is not only that of the individual caught up in loyalty and security procedures; it is also the torment of the accuser and judge.

This essay in sociological analysis and political philosophy considers the cold war preoccupation with espionage, sabotage, and subversion at home, assessing the magnitude of such threats and contrasting it to the agitation - by lawmakers, investigators, and administrators - so wildly directed against the "enemy." Mr. Shils, widely regarded as one of the world's most influential social thinkers, has written an examination of a recurring American characteristic that is as timely as ever.
Subjects: Communism, Internal security, Politics and government, Loyalty-security program, 1947-, Science, Civil rights, Philosophy, Liberty, Loyalty oaths, Security clearances, Communism, united states, United states, politics and government, 1933-1953, United states, military policy
Places: United States
Time periods: 1933-1953, 1917-