Volume 20, Number 17 · November 1, 1973
Hogan's Goats
By Andrew Hacker
The Briar Patch: The People of the State of New York v. Lumumba Shakur Et Al
by Murray Kempton
Dutton, 282 pp., $7.95
Every author has his own special reason for writing about a trial. So the first question to come to mind is why Murray Kempton chose to spend almost seven months in Manhattan's Criminal Courts Building, following the prosecution of thirteen Black Panthers. Obviously any account of a criminal case provides some insight into the functioning of justice. But even in the opening pages of The Briar Patch (a mistaken and misleading title) it becomes plain that Kempton has something much more ambitious in mind. His subject is the condition of American radicalism itself.
Review, 1725 words
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