U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security visit Dartmouth student over library book

December 17, 2005

A University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth senior was visited by federal agents in September, after he requested a copy of Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, which is colloquially known as "The Little Red Book".

History professors Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand reported that the student requested the book through the university library via an interlibrary loan, which the Department of Homeland Security monitors. The agents apparently told the student that the book was on a watch list.

The student was writing a research paper on Maoist communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism. Government monitoring of library loans is often viewed as totalitarian practice.

"My instinct is that there is a lot more monitoring than we think," said Dr. Williams.