Bill’s biography of Erwin Knoll, the late editor of The Progressive, was published by Common Courage Press in 1996.
From the jacket: “Erwin Knoll never built a bomb or joined a separatist group, but he relished his status as an enemy of the state. From fleeing the Nazis as a child in his native Austria, to being a Washington journalist on Nixon’s Official Enemies List, to his 21-year tenure as editor of The Progressive magazine, to his role as a commentator on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, Knoll stood in opposition to the powerful people and institutions of his time. In 1979, the U.S. Government moved to prevent him from publishing an article about the inner workings of the hydrogen bomb — an historic confrontation between the rights of the media and the power of the state, told here in unprecedented depth.”
Praise for An Enemy of the State
“[A] remarkably thorough and sensitively drawn biography…. Lueders offers a fresh and necessary perspective on the man whose death left a deep void in the landscape of American discourse.” — The Capital Times
“Knoll’s life makes for a heck of a yarn, and Lueders tells it well.” — Wisconsin State Journal
“For those who have stopped believing in honor and integrity, a biography of the late Erwin Knoll, An Enemy of the State by Bill Lueders, will help restore faith.” — Molly Ivins
“The story of an absolutist in an age of moderation. This is a layered look at one of late 20th Century journalism’s leading rogue intellectuals. Fascinating.” — American Journalism Review
“In five well-researched chapters [on The Progressive magazine’s 1979 H-bomb case], Lueders has provided the definitive account of a landmark conflict between freedom of the press and nuclear secrecy–a momentous contest still at issue, despite the victory of the inteprid little magazine and its doughty editor. [Erwin Knoll was] a worthy foe of narrow nationalism–a true enemy of the state.” — The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
“One of the many virtues of Bill Lueders’ biography of Erwin Knoll…is that it reminds us of the dignity that can come with being uncompromising.” — The Nation
Winner: Book Award of Merit, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Outstanding Achievement by a Wisconsin Author, Wisconsin Library Association
Available used or contact Bill directly at blueders [at] gmail.com.
An Enemy of the State
Bill’s biography of Erwin Knoll, the late editor of The Progressive, was published by Common Courage Press in 1996.
From the jacket: “Erwin Knoll never built a bomb or joined a separatist group, but he relished his status as an enemy of the state. From fleeing the Nazis as a child in his native Austria, to being a Washington journalist on Nixon’s Official Enemies List, to his 21-year tenure as editor of The Progressive magazine, to his role as a commentator on the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, Knoll stood in opposition to the powerful people and institutions of his time. In 1979, the U.S. Government moved to prevent him from publishing an article about the inner workings of the hydrogen bomb — an historic confrontation between the rights of the media and the power of the state, told here in unprecedented depth.”
“[A] remarkably thorough and sensitively drawn biography…. Lueders offers a fresh and necessary perspective on the man whose death left a deep void in the landscape of American discourse.” — The Capital Times
“Knoll’s life makes for a heck of a yarn, and Lueders tells it well.” — Wisconsin State Journal
“For those who have stopped believing in honor and integrity, a biography of the late Erwin Knoll, An Enemy of the State by Bill Lueders, will help restore faith.” — Molly Ivins
“The story of an absolutist in an age of moderation. This is a layered look at one of late 20th Century journalism’s leading rogue intellectuals. Fascinating.” — American Journalism Review
“In five well-researched chapters [on The Progressive magazine’s 1979 H-bomb case], Lueders has provided the definitive account of a landmark conflict between freedom of the press and nuclear secrecy–a momentous contest still at issue, despite the victory of the inteprid little magazine and its doughty editor. [Erwin Knoll was] a worthy foe of narrow nationalism–a true enemy of the state.” — The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
“One of the many virtues of Bill Lueders’ biography of Erwin Knoll…is that it reminds us of the dignity that can come with being uncompromising.” — The Nation
Winner: Book Award of Merit, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Outstanding Achievement by a Wisconsin Author, Wisconsin Library Association
Available used or contact Bill directly at blueders [at] gmail.com.