Jon Wiener (born May 16, 1944) is an American historian and journalist based in Los Angeles, California.[ His most recent book is , a Los Angeles Times bestseller co-authored by Mike Davis.][ Wiener played a key role in efforts to expose the surveillance, as well as the behind-the-scenes battling between the government and the former The Beatles, and is an expert on the FBI-versus-Lennon controversy.]
Set the Night on Fire (2020) is a movement history of Los Angeles. The backbone of the book is the story of the civil rights, Black power and Chicano movements, as well as the anti-war movement, gay liberation and women's liberation and the battles between young people and the LAPD on Sunset Strip and at Venice Beach. The counterculture provides another focus—the Ash Grove folk music club, the LA Free Press, KPFK radio and the Free Clinic.
Early life
Wiener was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota,[ the son of Gladys (née Aronsohn) and Dr. Daniel Wiener.][
]
Career
Academic career
At the University of California, Irvine, Wiener taught history courses on American politics and the Cold War. His scholarly works have been published in The American Historical Review, The Journal of American History, Radical History Review,
Journalism and political commentary
Since 1984, Wiener has been a contributing editor for The Nation magazine,[ where he has written about diverse topics including campus issues, intellectual controversies, and southern California politics. His writing has also appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times.]
In his journalism, Wiener, writing in the Los Angeles Times at the beginning of 2020, correctly predicted that 2020 would be "The Worst Year of Trump’s Life."
Wiener and the Lennon FBI files
|
| + Chronology of Wiener v. FBI |
|
| 1969 | Lennon releases the single
"Give Peace a Chance" | |
| 1971–1972 | FBI closely monitors Lennon | |
| 1972-03-06 | INS tries to deport Lennon | |
| 1973-03 | Judge rules Lennon must leave
US in two months | |
| 1973-06 | Lennon countersues US | [Note: the month is uncertain but the year 1973 is probably right.] |
| 1976-06 | Lennon wins countersuit;
can stay in US | [Note: the month is uncertain but the year 1976 is probably right.] |
| 1980-12-10 | John Lennon murdered | |
| 1981 | Wiener researches book
on Lennon | |
| 1981 | Wiener requests documents
Gets some, most held back | |
| 1981 | Wiener sues FBI
to release documents | |
| 1983 | FBI claims national
security danger | |
| 1991 | 9th circuit court: FBI
didn't show "adequate
grounds" for secrecy | |
| 1992 | Justice Dept appeals
9th Circuit decision
to Supreme Court | |
| 1992 | Court refuses appeal,
sides with Wiener/ACLU | |
| 1997 | FBI releases more documents
except for ten documents | |
| 2000 | Report: Lennon may have
secretly funded IRA
says MI5
doubted by Lennon supporters | |
| 2004 | Federal judge orders
remaining ten
documents released | |
| 2004 | FBI agrees to release
final 10 documents | |
| 2006-12-20 | FBI releases final
eight[ or ten documents] | |
| 2006 | The U.S. Versus John Lennon
Documentary; Wiener is consultant | |
| 2006-12-21 | Wiener discussed contents of
declassified material on NPR | |
|
Background
The legal battle between Wiener and the United States government was waged over two and a half decades, and has been examined by other historians.[ Government surveillance of Lennon had been extensive,][ although there was no documentary evidence of wiretapping,][ and lasted about 11 months.]
The attempt to deport Lennon
The Immigration and Naturalization Service, acting on a suggestion from Senator Strom Thurmond,[ and probably at the behest of Richard Nixon, ordered Lennon to be deported in the spring of 1972.]
Reporter Adam Cohen writing in 2006 in The New York Times agreed that the FBI surveillance of Lennon had been motivated not only by antiwar concerns but by concerns of a political nature.[ Numerous friends, including folk singer Bob Dylan,][ On December 8, 1972, after Nixon's reelection in November, the FBI closed its investigation of Lennon, partially because Lennon has shown "inactivity in Revolutionary Activities."][ John Lennon was murdered in December 1980.
]
Wiener vs. the FBI
In 1981, while conducting research for a book about John Lennon, Wiener learned of the FBI surveillance,[ pages of files on the ex-Beatle. Wiener requested the release of the FBI's files on Lennon by citing the Freedom of Information Act. The FBI refused to release two-thirds][ or 199 pages]
In 1983, Wiener sued the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act with assistance from the ACLU of Southern California,[ In response, the FBI turned over some documents, but withheld others claiming they contained "national security information provided by a foreign government under an explicit promise of confidentiality" and added that releasing the documents could lead to "military retaliation against the United States."]
Wiener chronicled much of his frustration with getting documents in his 1984 book Come Together including many "Orwellian moments" during the "tortoise-like progress" of the lawyers.[ While Wiener lost many of the early "skirmishes", a turning point came in 1991 when the 9th Circuit appeals court ruled in his favor, and declared that the FBI had failed to provide "adequate grounds" to keep the data secret.][ Then-Justice Department lawyer John Roberts, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, appealed the decision,][ but the Supreme Court declined to review it.][
]
The case of Wiener v FBI escalated over many years.[ before the case could be heard before the SCOTUS, and most documents except ten were released to Wiener as part of the agreement.][ According to Wiener, the government paid $204,000 in court costs and attorney fees.][ The justice department lawyers retained ten documents under the national security proviso of the FOIA.][ and only regarded solicitation of funds for a "left-wing bookshop and reading room in London" but that Lennon did not provide any funds for this purpose.][ Wiener wrote:
]
Wiener expressed amazement that so much of the information had been withheld:
Chronicling the case
Wiener wrote about his legal battles in his book, Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files, published by the University of California Press in 2000.
Wiener's work provided the basis for the 2006 documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon.
Books
Wiener is the author of seven books. In addition to his co-authored 2020 book , Wiener also wrote Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud and Power in the Ivory Tower.
Critical reaction
Reactions by critics to Wiener's writings has been varied.
Among his earlier books, the New York Times Book Review wrote that Wiener's book Come Together: John Lennon in His Time "stands out as one of the few books that don't want to deify, dish the dirt about or otherwise exploit the slain former Beatle."
Selected bibliography
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, by Jon Wiener and Mike Davis, Verso (publisher), April 14, 2020,
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I Told You So: Gore Vidal Talks Politics—interviews with Gore Vidal
-
How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey across America.
[ Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. .
]
-
Conspiracy in the Streets: The Extraordinary Trial of the Chicago Seven. Edited with an introduction by Jon Wiener; afterword by Tom Hayden; drawings by Jules Feiffer. New York: The New Press, 2006.
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Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and Politics in the Ivory Tower . New York: The New Press, 2005.
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Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
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Professors, Politics and Pop. London and New York: Verso Books, 1991.
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Come Together: John Lennon in his Time New York: Random House, 1984.
[
]
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Social Origins of the New South: Alabama, 1865-1885. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978.
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"The Footnote Fetish." Telos 31 (Spring 1977). New York: Telos Press.
See also
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John Lennon
-
Give Peace a Chance
-
Federal Bureau of Investigation
-
Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian
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Kevin McCaighy in Socialist Review
External links
