The Greatest Sedition is Silence:
Four Years in America
By William Rivers Pitt

Book Review by Greg Palast:

New York Times best-selling author of "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know," political analyst with the Institute for Public Accuracy, and Managing Editor and Senior Writer for truthout.org, brings his detailed and passionate analysis of the state of American politics under George W. Bush to this important new book. In many ways, William Rivers Pitt is a typical American Everyman. He spent the last several years as a committed high school educator, both as a classroom teacher and dean. Mr. Pitt is, however, a different sort of citizen. With a sharply tuned ability to write, and a solid determination to play his part in a democracy that requires informed involvement, Mr. Pitt has positioned himself at the forefront of current critical political and social analysis. As senior writer for the internet news and opinion site, truthout.org, which enjoys over a million readers per month, he has a rapidly growing readership among average citizens and power brokers on Capitol Hill. His first book, War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You To Know, was a New York Times bestseller. Translated into twelve languages, it became an indispensable part of the debate that continues to rage regarding the conflict in Iraq.

The Greatest Sedition is Silence: Four Years in America brings that thoughtful and detailed analysis to the home front, and addresses his concerns that we are a nation ruled by an extremist corporate conservative regime, a nation that has been roiled by the attacks of September 11th, and underserved by a mainstream media establishment that is failing to fulfill its journalistic responsibilities. “At no point in American history has such a perspective been more essential, for at no point in history have the unique and fundamental underpinnings of American democracy been more at peril,” he writes. Mr. Pitt is not merely analyzing the Bush administration in his new book. He is raising a cry in the dark to all concerned Americans: the dream that is America stands in mortal danger.

In The Greatest Sedition is Silence, Mr. Pitt takes a hard look at the state of basic constitutional protections in the aftermath of the passage of the PATRIOT Anti-Terrorism Act, and warns that every American's most essential rights are under assault. He pierces the veil of moral leadership that has been draped around George W. Bush to reveal the truth of the man beneath. He presents scathing evidence to establish that the disasters of Enron and other corporate catastrophes were not anomalies, rather the end result of a ruinous code of ethics that has poisoned the American economy. He makes his point that this same anti-social, shortsighted greed is also obvious in the highest circles of American government.
Mr. Pitt details, respectfully and with carefully honed outrage, the facts which led to the attacks of September 11th. He asks the questions that the mainstream media are unable to address, and analyzes the importance of a balanced American reaction to that terrible day. He shows that the existence of a "Liberal Media" is a myth, explaining how corporations use the media they own to maintain a dangerous status quo for the sole sake of profit, and to show that much of what is passed off as "news" is in fact distraction and disinformation.
Mr. Pitt raises a call for solidarity within the progressive community, damning the fragmented disunity on the Left as the best friend of ultra-conservatives who use disunion to divide and conquer. Finally, Mr. Pitt outlines the need for everyday Americans like him to become more informed and active within their democracy, and offers a laundry list of actions and solutions people can focus on to make a difference within their nation and their world.

With the publication of this new book, Mr. Pitt hopes to take his message to an even broader audience to convey that we need, simply, to become informed and to act in the name of the nation he treasures so much. With all that is at stake, and with the incredible dangers that face America and the global community, the words Mr. Pitt brings today are vital. In this day and age, the greatest sedition is indeed our silence.