From Freedom to Slavery is the chilling prophecy of one of America's most original and fearless defenders of freedom, a book written with the passion of Thomas Paine. Brittle and profoundly disturbing, From Freedom to Slavery is destined to become a classic for the eloquent case that it makes: that we have delivered our freedoms to a new master, the corporate and governmental conglomerate, which Gerry Spence calls "the New King". Spence, whose many trials include the Karen Silkwood case, has developed over the years a legendary rhetorical style that summons up the spirit of Clarence Darrow. Here, in this radical departure from his four previous, court-related books, he presents a most vivid and compelling premise: that in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only miragelike images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them. Whereas the black slave was chained to a living master, the new slave has become a digit, a mere item of production that expended by an invisible master without heart or soul. From Freedom to Slavery is a powerful and penetrating call to awaken from an insidious and enshrouding bondage that threatens the survival of American society. It is a plaintive and eloquent cry from a Westerner who mourns what America has lost in its reckless adoption of a free-spending, high-tech lifestyle, and a plea from one of America's most profound thinkers that we finally begin the painfultask of examining ourselves. With Thoreau-like purity, Spence argues that such an awakening is the first step to freedom, for unless we understand our enslavement, we cannot reject it; unless we become aware of our imprisonment, we cannot free ourselves. From Freedom to Slavery is such a vital and clarion call.