The sky's the limit : People v. Newton : the real trial of the 20th century?

ABOUT THE BOOK: Anyone fascinated by true crime and legal thrillers will want to read The Sky's The Limit: People v. Newton, The Real Trial of the 20th Century? In comparing the 1968 trial of Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton to other riveting American trials from 1901 to 1999, author Lise Pearlman revisits historic legal battles featuring murder, rape and kidnapping, skeletons in celebrity closets, class warfare, fixing the World Series, evolution versus creationism, abuse of power and political conspiracy. Each "trial of the century" serves as a window into its own era, but the author asserts that the Newton murder trial following a shootout with two Oakland policemen--where the accused revolutionary put America itself on trial for 400 years of racism-should head the list. It drew an international spotlight on a superpower rocked by two political assassinations and bitterly divided over the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. At the time, the FBI considered the Black Panthers the greatest internal threat to America's security. So did Party spokesman Eldridge Cleaver, who threatened revolution if Newton were condemned to die. The author contends that the jury's surprising verdict still reverberates today-had it turned out otherwise Barack Obama would likely not be President. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lise Pearlman was an undergraduate at Yale during the murder trial of Panther Chairman Bobby Seale in New Haven and has lived most of her adult life in Oakland where the 1968 Huey Newton murder trial took place. She arrived in the fall of 1971 between Newton's second and third trials for the killing of Officer Frey. Now a retired judge, she practices as a mediator with Alternative Resolution Centers. This Comprehensive Volume Examines The Impact Of Important 20th Century Criminal Trials On American History And Culture. The Work Begins With A Discussion Of Sixteen Important Legal Cases From 1901 To 1967, Each At One Time Considered The Trial Of The Century, And Explores The Cultural And Political Impacts Of Each In Depth. The Second Part Of The Work Provides A Detailed Analysis Of The 1968 Murder Trial Of Black Panther Co-founder Huey P. Newton And Its Significance To The Nation. The Third Part Of The Book Discusses Competing Trials Of The Century From 1968 To 1999. The Text Concludes With A Discussion Of The Racial Impacts Of The Panther Prosecutions And The Developments In The Politics Of Race That Have Led Now To The Election Of The Nation's First Black President. Pearlman Is A Retired A Judge And Prominent California Lawyer And Legal Scholar. Annotation ♭2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, Or (booknews.com). Part One : Introduction: The Playing Field : Sometimes The Fix Is In -- Dementia Americana : The Murder Of Stanford White -- Undesirable Citizens : The Murder Trial Of Big Bill Haywood -- Showdown With The Supreme Court : The Contempt Trial Of Sheriff Joseph Shipp -- Labor V. Capital Redux : The Los Angeles Times Bombing Case -- Murder Begets Murder : The Tragic Deaths Of Mary Phagan And Leo Frank -- Anarchist Scare : The Trial Of Sacco And Vanzetti -- Leopold And Loeb : Murder For The Thrill Of It -- The Scopes Monkey Trial : The Staged Battle Of Evolution V. Creationism -- Even A Black Man's Home Is His Castle : Pyrrhic Victory In The Sweet Murder Trials -- Southern Justice Revisited : The Railroading Of The Scottsboro Boys -- The Explosive Massie Affair : Truth Battles Raw Power -- National Frenzy : The Lindbergh Baby Killing -- Shameless Haste : The Rosenberg Espionage Trial -- Death Of Innocence : Hate Crimes And The Civil Rights Movement -- Beyond Civil Rights : Other Movement Cases. Part Two: Free Huey Now! -- The Panthers' Roots -- Takin' Care Of Business -- The Defense Team -- Who Do You Trust? -- Honkies For Huey -- The Smell Of Revolution -- Client Or Comrade? -- Power To The People -- The Quest For A Jury Of His Peers -- A Minority Of One -- On Trial : Newton Or American Society? -- The Day Of Reckoning Arrives -- Aftermath -- Part Three: The Free Huey Compaign Expands To Bursting -- Eclipsed -- Visions Of Apocalyptic Race War -- Triple Jeopardy : Black, Female, And Communist -- Watergate Overshadows The Cobra -- Downward Spiral -- A Closer Look At The Competition -- The Precarious Path To A Bi-racial President. Lise Pearlman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [762]-778) And Index. Bernard Williams was one of the most important philosophers of the last fifty years, but he was also a distinguished critic and essayist with an elegant style and a rare ability to communicate complex ideas to a wide public. This is the first collection of Williams's popular essays and reviews, many of which appeared in the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement. In these pieces, Williams writes about a broad range of subjects, from philosophy and political philosophy to religion, science, the humanities, economics, socialism, feminism, and pornography. Included here are reviews of major books such as John Rawls's Theory of Justice, Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Alastair MacIntyre's After Virtue, Richard Rorty's Consequences of Pragmatism, and Martha Nussbaum's Therapy of Desire. But many of these essays extend beyond philosophy and together provide an intellectual tour through the past half century, from C. S. Lewis and Umberto Eco to Noam Chomsky. No matter the subject, Williams probes and challenges arguments, teases out their implications, and connects them to the wider intellectual scene. At the same time, readers see a first-class mind grappling with landmark books in'real time,'before critical consensus had formed and ossified. In his foreword, Michael Wood discusses Williams's style and sensibility and his concern that philosophy contribute to the larger intellectual conversation.