A concise, accessible, and engaging guide to the law of treason, written
by the nation’s foremost expert on the subject
The
only crime defined in the United States Constitution, treason is routinely
described by judges as more heinous than murder. Today the term is regularly
thrown around by lawmakers and pundits on both sides of the aisle. But as these
heated accusations flood the news cycle, it’s not always clear what the crime
of treason truly is, or when it should be prosecuted.
Drawing
on over two decades of research, constitutional law and legal history scholar
Carlton Larson takes us on a grand tour of the Treason Clause of the United
States Constitution. Despite the Clause’s apparent simplicity, Larson
demonstrates that it is a form of constitutional quicksand in which seemingly
obvious intuitions are often far off the mark. From the floors of the
medieval British Parliament that codified the Statute of Treasons upon which
the American law was based to the treason of Benedict Arnold, our nation’s
founding traitor, to more recent events, including WWII’s “Tokyo Rose” and the
allegations against Edward Snowden and Donald Trump, Larson provides a riveting
account of treason law in action.
On Treason is
an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to understand this fundamental
aspect of our legal system. With this short, accessible look at the law’s
history and meaning, Larson clarifies who is actually guilty—and readers won’t
need a law degree to understand why.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.