Crystal Eastman and the internationalist beginnings of American civil liberties. From: Duke Law Journal | Date: December 1, 2004| Author: Witt, John Fabian | COPYRIGHT 2004 Duke University, School of Law. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

ABSTRACT

The modern American civil liberties movement famously began with the United States's intervention in World War I. Yet these beginnings have long raised a conundrum for civil liberties historians. Why did the American civil liberties movement arise precisely when so many sophisticated legal and political thinkers began to call into question the truth value of abstract rights claims? The puzzling rise of civil liberties in an age of pragmatic skepticism is all the...