Perspective

Studly Studs Terkel provides some historical perspective on the American government's long history of spying on its citizens, and how the American people have reacted. For the first two-thirds of the column I thought the takeaway might be that things have improved so much since early 1900s that all our fears about Bush and the NSA are rooted in paranoia and ignorance. But it turns out that we're just coming full circle.