In this carefully documented and incisive book, a veteran newsman examines in detail the growing threat by Government to individual privacy, "that precious island of separateness" which distinguishes the free society from a police state.

Writing with an earnest regard for facts, the author reveals how:

• One Federal agent in California posed as a recruiter for an aircraft company in order to get private information about applicants and to spy on employees.
• The Government operates a Technical Aids School in Washington, D.C., where undercover men of non-security agencies are taught to pick locks, tap telephones, and install secret listening devices.
• A Pittsburgh attorney found himself "heading for possible criminal difficulty" when he vigorously defended a taxpayer against the Government. The judge in the case told him: "You have offended the Federal Government, and they will investigate you for the rest of your life."

Using information obtained from nationwide interviews, Congressional hearings, court transcripts and confidential sources in Washington, the author presents and alarming array of evidence to show that today some Federal agencies seek to penetrate not only our homes, but our minds as well. He warns that a vast amount of data about the private affairs of every individual in the nation is being gathered by scores of official bureaus. The material files in these dossiers -- much of it inaccurate or based on hearsay -- may eventually be stored in a centralized Government computer system for instant retrieval by those who wish to control our lives.

One chapter of the book reveals in shocking detail how the spy system of government is undermining the morale of our youth. "Under the visible restraint of the policeman and the invisible restraint of the hidden informer," says the author, "youthful wrongdoing seems to decline. But as all history proves, such an improvement is temporary and illusory. The individual is no longer governed by a sense of right and wrong, but responds only to the whereabouts of the policeman. He exercises no moral judgment, but only and animal sense of caution."

The critical reader, of whatever political allegiance, will find in this timely and forceful book much to stimulate sober refection. It will confirm the opinions of the few, change the thinking of many, and enlighten all concerning the present conditions of our cherished Constitutional rights.