In October 1948, 11 leaders of the Communist Party-USA were convicted of conspiring, in contravention of the 1940 Smith Act, to advocate the revolutionary overthrow of the U.S. government. This book recounts the trial in its fullest context, beginning in the late 1930's with the origins of the Smith Act, and ending with the last government attacks upon the Communist Party in the late 1950's. In the process, the author expertly surveys a politico-judicial conflict that figures most prominently in the history of American civil liberties.