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Steal This Book

Review

Steal This Book



Okay, so I was a kid, a child really, growing up in the late '60s
early '70s in Northern Illinois. Why should I review the
anniversary publication of Abbie Hoffman's STEAL THIS BOOK? My
first real vivid memory is of walking through the Boulder Hill
Elementary School yard and seeing the American flag flying at half
mast. I asked my mother what that was all about, and she explained
that a great man, Robert Kennedy, had been assassinated. She went
on to tell me who Kennedy was and why he was so important in our
society. I think Abbie Hoffman would have appreciated Mom's
explanation. She is also the one who threatened to wash out my
mouth with soap for calling a police officer "fuzz." Cop was okay,
fuzz not.

From there, I and my siblings learned about Martin Luther King Jr.,
Nixon, and Watergate. Men walked on the moon, Vietnam raged, and
our mother insisted we learn and use proper grammar. Language, she
said, is knowledge and power. God help us if we ever used a double
negative in her presence! Most kids my age spent their spare time
outside playing. I watched Senator Sam Ervin from North Carolina
chew up Washington elite on television during the Watergate
hearings. I thought it was so cool that Ervin carried a copy of the
Constitution in his pocket. I feel Hoffman would have too. Freedom
as defined by our government carried in the pocket of a homespun
southern lawyer. How appropriate.

So, back to the focus, STEAL THIS BOOK. Who am I to review this
book, this work by one of our greatest free speech activists? I am
nothing more than an adult who would lay down his life for the
concept of free speech as defined in the First Amendment of the
Constitution of the United States. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I feel
Abbie Hoffman stood for our right to question and protest the
decisions of our government.

Although now somewhat dated, STEAL THIS BOOK is a fun romp back
into an era of our collective history we all should not forget.
Sure, the '60s are dead, and we live in a new time, but what Abbie
Hoffman reminds us of is a time when new ways of thinking were
espoused. The reader learns street skills such as how to use a
stolen credit card, how to gather free food, and how to make bombs.
In our time of heightened security, should we allow this type of
work to be published? You bet. Without such works, we as a society
fail to uphold our founders' prime directive. Live free.

I had the pleasure of seeing Abbie Hoffman debate Jerry Rubin on
our campus a few years back. Rubin took the new "networking"
establishment side, as Hoffman stayed in his devil-may-care
character. I wondered if the two old friends staged the event, or
if they really had changed in their own ways. One thing was
abundantly clear. A student asked a long-winded question about
protest, and both men answered that the '60s was their time, not
his, and that he needed to realize this and adapt to his time. Time
changes us all. We must realize now more than ever that a man like
Abbie Hoffman will continue, through his legacy, to promote free
speech and political activism as necessary for the survival of our
society. STEAL THIS BOOK? No, that's so '60s. Buy this book and
read it. Discover Hoffman's humor. Go then and work.

Reviewed by Tony Parker on January 23, 2011

Steal This Book
by Abbie Hoffman

  • Publication Date: November 30, -0001
  • Genres: Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 308 pages
  • Publisher: Da Capo Press
  • ISBN-10: 156858217X
  • ISBN-13: 9781568582177