dissenters

In May 1956, an Italian publishing scout visited Russia's greatest living poet, Boris Pasternak. He left carrying the original manuscript of Dr. Zhivago. Pasternak believed his novel was unlikely ever to be published in the Soviet Union, where the authorities regarded it as an irredeemable assault on the 1917 Revolution. But Pasternak thought it stood a chance of being published and read in the West. From Italy it made its way around the world to earn Pasternak the 1958 Pulitzer Prize in Literature. Copies were sold in Moscow and Leningrad on the Black Market and when Pasternak died in 1960 in Russia his funeral was attended by thousands of admirers who defied their government to bid him farewell.

Ian Johnson recounts the true stories of three ordinary people who find themselves fighting oppression and government corruption in China.

Examines the actions of individuals who did the right thing by breaking the rules, including a brother and sister who distributed antigovernment pamphlets in Nazi Germany, the man who helped develop but also spoke out against the nuclear bomb in Cold War Russia, and others.

Prison loner Luke Jackson wins the respect of his fellow inmates when he refuses to cower before the chain gang boss.

Describes how dissenters have conducted their protests from the Separatists of 1620 to the current-day war protesters.

Explores the lives and political activism of three Chinese people who work to fight governmental oppression and corruption.

Traces the roots of Americans' distrust of government, looking at anti-government attitudes in rough chronological order as they manifested themselves throughout history, beginning with the Minutemen and continuing through the late twentieth century.