From Library Journal
In 1971, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover started a surveillance of former Beatle John Lennon, who was believed to be a threat to national security. Lennon was active in leading a campaign to get younger people registered to vote against the Vietnam War, which was equated with voting against the reelection of Nixon. Wiener (history, Univ. of California, Irvine; Come Together: John Lennon and His Time) was engaged in a 14-year court battle to secure the Lennon files under The Freedom of Information Act. This book is filled with excerpts of these formerly classified documents, which reveal the idiocy of the type of information that was kept on Lennon. In many cases, these "secrets" were a matter of public knowledge and were very mundane. Wiener is to be commended for fighting the government's undemocratic use of power, but, unfortunately, his book is often dull and is only recommended for specialized collections in criminology.ATim Delaney, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Independent, UK
"An extraordinary portrait of official paranoia."


Los Angeles Times, 12/30
"What GIMME SOME TRUTH adds to the record is both ponderous and appalling."


Washington Post Book World
"As pure courtroom drama, Wiener's account of the fight to get the files is often fascinating. Given the history of government evasiveness and delaying tactics that Wiener has ably described here, the world may barely remember who either John Lennon or Richard Nixon was by the time they're made public in full."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"A strident and impermissable effort to second-guess the wisdom of the FBI. . . . A potpourri of conjecture, supposition, innuendo and surmise."-from the FBI's court documents

"Jon Wiener has put together a remarkable compilation of documents. I know of no keener annotations to any documents illustrating government surveillance. Wiener's commentary is as sprightly as the documents are foolish. He is thorough, appropriately droll at times, and rightly focused on the question of whether the FBI and the CIA were keeping to their lawful mandates during the years of abandon and evasion."-Todd Gitlin author of The Sixties

"The book sheds light on many issues far broader than John Lennon-the Nixon administration for example, and, not less importantly, the particular machinations of Clinton, Blair, and other current world leaders. Very few people know how the process of seeking and retrieving documents supposedly available under the Freedom of Information Act really works; Wiener's book makes this all very clear."-Eric Foner, Columbia University

"A classic case study. There is humor here and mystery, too. But most of all, there is hard evidence--in the FBI's own words--of what happens when government substitutes paranoia for law." -Floyd Abrams

Author Biography: Jon Wiener is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, author of Come Together: John Lennon and His Time (1994), and a contributing editor of The Nation.

END

SYNOPSIS

One of the most important books ever published about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It wins bonus points for being delightful to read while being educational. Even for readers who never intend to use the FOIA, this book is a great supplement to Wiener's 1984 biography, Come Together: John Lennon and His Time.

FROM THE CRITICS

Billboard

As a procedural history of a battle for the facts, Gimme Some Truth is as thorough and onpoint regarding the Lennon case as one could hope for.

LA Weekly

Wiener's annotations on declassified documents capture the FBI at its Monty Pythonesque best... Gimme Some Truth 's greatest value is as a document of an era when one man and his music had the power to change people's minds.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

A scary and fascinating book.

Washington Post Book World

As pure courtroom drama, Wiener's account of the fight to get the files is often fascinating. Given the history of government evasiveness and delaying tactics that Wiener has ably described here, the world may barely remember who either John Lennon or Richard Nixon was by the time they're made public in full.

Christian Science Monitor