When an organization committed to free speech succumbs to pressure to suppress internal criticism and disregard or "spin" the truth, it offers important lessons for other associations, corporations, and governments. Wendy Kaminer, a renowned advocate of civil liberties, calls on her experience as a dissident member of the American Civil Liberties Union national board to tell an inside story of dramatic ethical declines that has much to teach us about the land mines of groupthink.

Materials cited in this book, including records of ACLU meetings, memos, and correspondence from board and staff members, are available in the Beacon Press archive at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.