O'Rourke, William

New York. 1972. Thomas Crowell. 1st Printing. Very Good in Slightly Worn Dustjacket. 069037271x. 264 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Alan Peckolick. keywords: Politics America History. FROM THE PUBLISHER - No trial in American history has been recorded with the unique novelistic perspective that O'Rourke brings to the trial of the Harrisburg 7. As a member of the working press, with access to the lawyers and Debate Committee that surrounded the Seven, he has captured with incisive lyric force not only the complex trial itself, but the nuances and rhythms the soul - of the many months in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, living in a ‘state of trial' with the defendants, press corps, and visiting ‘Movement' figures who gravitated there. ‘The cream of the Catholic Left ‘ - as their FBI informer dubbed them - stood accused of conspiring to raid federal offices, bomb heating tunnels, and most spectacularly, to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger. Much more was on trial: the Catholic Left's philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience; protest and dissent during a time of undeclared war; the Berrigan brothers' position as moral leaders of the new Left; and the reputation and integrity of the defendants' pre-trial accuser, J. Edgar Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigation. Within the courtroom and without, O'Rourke scrutinizes every aspect of the case: the FBI informer, Boyd F. Douglas, Jr.; the Berrigan-McAlister correspondence and ‘kidnap' letters; the roots from which the Catholic Left grew; and the reasons for the government's indictment. Here then, is a stunning glimpse at a landmark trial by a gifted young writer. inventory #15593 ISBN: 069037271x.