From Freedom to Slavery: The Rebirth of Tyranny in America

Noted Wyoming trial lawyer Spence ( Gunning for Justice ) is a veteran rhetorician, but this ``collection for free-floating thoughts about freedom'' lacks organization and offers only scattered sustenance. He muses about governmental abuses of power as well as about the tyranny of fear, of poverty, of viewpoint and of work, and makes the dubious point that freedom itself is a form of tyranny: ``It requires that we be alive, alert, exquisitely aware of our raw being.'' A foe of ``inherently evil'' corporations, Spence proposes an intriguing reform: each corporation should seat ordinary people on its board as ``conscience members.'' He then meanders into imaginary dialogues about the sanctity of the environment, cites Native American wisdom to attack sexism and makes tart observations on corporate control of the media. Spence's chapters sound more like impassioned court statements than well-structured arguments. Photos not seen by PW. (July)