Rating: 
Summary: Still sleeping? This will wake you up
Review: Bovard's classic eye-opener belongs on the shelf of every American. Rather than serve merely as a warning, this book serves as a slap in the face. The violation of rights that this book documents (with stellar scholarship) and explains are not things that are about to happen -- they are things that have already happened and are happening all around us. Want to know "what's the problem with big government, anyway?" Just read this book. It is easy to read, even if it is not easy to accept. Bovard is a great writer and takes polemics and journalistic writing to a new level.Buy this book and read it. Let it make you really, really angry about where we are. Read "Common Sense" by Paine and read the Constitution of the United States to figure out where we were. Then read "1984" by George Orwell to figure out where we're heading. Then read "The Road to Serfdom" by F A Hayek and realize why we're heading there. Then read "For A New Liberty" by Murray Rothbard and a host of other books to figure out what you can do about it. Then do it.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent scope
Review: I read this several years ago, so I'm a little rusty. But Bovard's book is an excellent run-down of various specific issues and how government agents are violating our rights w/regard to those issues. His many anecdotal examples of people being molested w/o cause in the natural-rights realm are scary and worse, aggitating. Such as people's houses being broken into because they have some several firearms. Such is a clear violation of the 4th Amend against unreasonable search&seizure w/o warrant. My biggest problem, content-wise, was his defense of pornographers. The purpose of the "speech" part of the 1st Amend was to protect people from being molested and jailed for critiquing government figures as was typical of omnipotent kings. (Hence, the outrage early in the republic when Adams pressed the Alien&Sedition Acts.) I think Bovard would be hard-pressed to find any documents or writings (and there are tons) in the seminal founding era which would indicate any concern about putting out smut or worse, subjecting children to it and allowing the perpetrators to get away w/it.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, amazing book.
Review: I'm currently about halfway through _Lost Rights_, and I've got lots of sticky tags on the margins of the pages for things I want to remember. While none of the gross abuses Bovard documents are really all that surprising to me as a Libertarian, the sheer scope of them should (but probably won't) clean the garbage out of most liberals' systems about how sacred and benevolent our government is.
I note the only negative review of this book is by one Roberta J. Dykema of (unsurprisingly) Seattle. Ms. Dykema's main complaint seems to be that Bovard is "only" relating anecdotes, not evidence. While anecdotal evidence might not stand up in a court of law, most of us rely on it in some form every day to make basic decisions. I'm reasonably sure Ms. Dykema has relied on anecdotal evidence to make up her mind (such as it is) about certain issues, such as the rate of "hate crimes" against gays or that the rape rate skyrockets during the Superbowl.
She continues, "There are extensive footnotes, but footnotes don't equal good research." True. Michael Bellesisles's _Arming America_ was heavily footnoted, if I remember correctly. But I wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Dykema loved it. Now if she'd like to present some cogent arguments that Bovard's footnotes are somehow spurious, I might take that sentence more seriously.
Ms. Dykema goes on, "He doesn't want schools to be racially integrated so that literacy rates can be improved with regard to race, and he doesn't want affirmative action either." She never mentions that literacy rates have NOT improved "with regard to race" or anything else since the forced busing idiocy of the '70s (I live in Boston, so I can tell you something about that era), and she doesn't bother to explain why, in fact, she believes affirmative action is an unqualified good. It's as if every "right-thinking person" automatically KNOWS it's good. Perhaps this is true for Ms. Dykema's coffeehouse circle, but most Americans could explain otherwise...including not a few blacks.
Then there's Ms. Dykema's pedantic sniping about how "vivify" does not equal "illustrate." Well, no, it doesn't. "Vivlfy" means "bring to life." I think that Bovard's "anecdotes" very much bring to life for the reader how frightening our government can be if you do something that displeases them or you have something they covet for themselves.
Finally, Ms. Dykema's snide quote of P.T. Barnum's "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" says a lot more about the contempt that she and her fellow travelers hold for ordinary Americans than it does about the intellectual powers of ordinary Americans. I read quite a few right-of-center blogs, and I'm a heck of a lot more impressed by the debates on such pages than I am by those on sites like Democratic Underground and Indymedia.
Hmmm...I note from Ms. Dykema's reviews page that she's a fan of left-wing pseudopopulist Molly Ivins. Oh, well, nobody ever went broke underestimating the disconnection from reality of the American chattering classes.
Rating:
Summary: Darned thing just keeps growing and growing and...
Review: James Bovard's treatise on the gradual ebb of liberty in modern America is a fair warning bell. It is disturbing to note that this book was published well before 9/11 and the spate of domestic civil-rights clampdowns that it spawned. Though the chapters are ostensibly devoted to specific subjects (unfair taxation, search and seizure violations, gun control legislation, "drug war" atrocities, etc.), there is considerable overlap. The central premise really isn't that hard to miss: government is getting too big and too powerful, and everyone is in danger, no matter which part of the political spectrum you choose to place yourself. It's hard not to feel a growing sense of anger and frustration as one goes along: is there any area of personal or business life that can't be controlled by the state? Bovard examines affirmative-action laws, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), the proliferation of gun control legislation, over-regulation of the marketplace (such as government bylaws that force employers to conform to a minimum wage and deal out harsh penalties for noncompliance), licensing and monopoly laws, asset forfeiture laws that enable government to seize your property under any the vaguest of unsubstantiated suspicions, and the thorny issue of "eminent domain" (the practice by which local governments may seize private property so it can be allocated to other private individuals who want it for profit-making purposes but want a way around paying market prices to acquire it). The state has indeed become an overwhelmingly interventionist, controlling force, and there is little evidence that this trend is about to slow down anytime soon. Bovard closes with a final disturbing statistic: Americans must today obey _thirty times_ as many laws as their great-grandfathers had to obey at the turn of the last century, and an ever-greater proportion of the enforcement and regulation carried on by government is _not specifically authorized by statute_, but is instead made up by unelected bureaucrats as they go along.
Rating: 
Summary: Just what does an anecdote prove?
Review: Nothing, really, but unfortunately Mr. Bovard relies exclusively on anecdotal information to support his thesis. In some cases, he even cites lawsuits that have been filed to support his arguments, without mentioning the outcome of those lawsuits. Anecdotal evidence is one of the weakest forms of evidence, but it's all Bovard's got. He also deftly contradicts himself, decrying government regulation EXCEPT when it comes to the S&L bailout, where he decries government DE-regulation. He doesn't want schools to be racially integrated so that literacy rates can be improved with regard to race, and he doesn't want affirmative action either. He also really, really likes the word "vivify" but doesn't have a very clear idea of what it means (he mostly uses it to mean "illustrate," a different concept altogether). There are extensive footnotes, but footnotes don't equal good research. In short, Bovard has utterly failed to prove that there is a massive, coordinated operation on the part of government agencies to curtail citizens' rights, or even to make the case that the government does not sometimes have a compelling interest in regulating certain forms of citizen behavior. In any case, anyone who can write (presumably with a straight face) that the Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound was "inadvertent" (the captain was drunk and safety mechanisms were knowingly and deliberately switched off) has got some credibility issues. Bovard uses a lot of sophisticated and technical language to SOUND like he's really smart, and from the looks of the reviews below, he succeeds. Oh, well; no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
Rating:
Summary: Another Bovard Bulls-eye
Review: One thing about Bovard, he makes an assertion, talks about the issue then drowns you in examples. I see where anbother reviewer has criticized Bovards use of anecdotal evidence saying that it is the weakest evidence. This is nonsense. When you are citing examples of goverment incompetence and abuse ther is no other kind of evidence other than by example. These are the cases that prove the point. I don't think we can do double-blind governemnt tyranny studies. I would be interested to know what kind of eveidence that reviewer would consider to be acceptable. Perhaps if the Army Corps of Engineers declared a puddle in his backyard to be a wetland and bulldoze his house - oh but that would be just another anecdote. Help me out here.
In addition, I think the other reviewer missed the point of whole book. Yes, Bovard cites files lawsuits but he also cites plenty of examples where judges have ruled in favor of the plaintiff, then cited examples of what can only be judicial incompetence or legal ignorance. The courts today are far from being the protector of our rights even if the occasional judge does do the right thing, and Bovard cites enough examples of that to prove that he indeed gives credit where credit is due.
But to the book, with Bovard's judicious use of examples and what we find is tat he builds a powerful case against the federal and in some cases local, governments. The examples he uses are all true and he by no means cites every example, but he sure cite enough to show a distinct pattern. An indisputable pattern.
What more powerful evidence can there be but to cite the facts of government abuse of citizens and the abrogation of the rights. There it is in black and white undeniable and irrefutable.
I also don't agree that Bovard is a champion of government regulation of the S&L's. I think the point Bovard made in the book was that the FDIC was insuring these S&L accounts and along with that insurance should have been some rules much like when you buy auto insurance, the insurer has the right to require certain things of you like having a drivers license.
I think What Bovard is saying here is that stupid regulations and failure to force the S&L's to behave responsibly as a condition for the FDIC coverage was the root of the problem. What if someone said to you in Las Vegas to bet as much as you like and not to worry, that someone else will cover your losses while you will keep you winnings. Imagine anyones behavior after being made an offer like that. Thats is basically what happened with the S&L's. If the S&L wanted FDIC coverage they should have had oversight. No oversight - no FDIC. Would you put your money in a non-FDIC bank? Maybe, maybe not but at least you would aware of the risks.
Overall Bovard makes a powerful case that no one can really challenge on the evidence. I would look forward to someone reviewing this book and citing a few examples that disprove his assertions. Yes I will accept anecdotal evidence.
Rating:
Summary: A great but frightening book.
Review: The United States of America is the greatest country in human history because it is the only nation ever founded on the noblest political principle possible: the principle of inalienable individual rights. But today this principle is undergoing an all-out assault by the enemies of liberty, and the United States is being destroyed in the process. This book presents, in terrifying detail, just how far the destruction of American liberties has gone. Bovard presents a wide range of examples of the arbitrary, viscious use of government power against defenseless citizens, and of the cost in death and ruined lives that this power produces. It is shocking to discover how far the destruction of freedom has already gone in America. Any person interested in protecting liberty ought to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book will make you steaming mad!
Review: This book is extremely well researched and incrediably thorough. However, it will make you so mad that you may have to put the book up many times before you can finish it. Otherwise, your blood pressure will rise to dangerous levels!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, but you won't like what he says.
Review: This book presents an exhaustively researched account of how government agencies will invariably use and abuse any power given them. Bovard makes it clear that more government is always bad. Some of the examples he gives are downright frightening. An unbiased media would cover this material on the nightly news, but you will have to read this book to hear this stuff for the first time.
Rating:
Summary: We went to war with the British over much less!!!
Review: This book proves it. The government is no longer "for" the people. They have become an end in themselves wishing to usurp total and complete control over us all. This book proves they have no concern for your rights, only their own desires. Though Bovard may not have meant it this way I see this book as a call to arms for all true patriotic Americans. It's time the politicians began tasting some of the fear and oppression they have been handing out for so long. If you can read this book and not feel some of the same you must care little or nothing for your liberty.
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