From one of the most influential journalists of the last half century, an essential explanation and defense of a foundational American idea: free speech
More than any other people on earth, we Americans are free to say and write what we think. The press can air the secrets of government, the corporate boardroom, or the bedroom with little fear of punishment or penalty. This extraordinary freedom results not from America's culture of tolerance, but from fourteen words in the constitution: the free expression clauses of the First Amendment.
From Publishers Weekly
The First Amendment's injunction that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press seems cut and dried, but its application has had a vexed history, according to this lucid legal history, Lewis's first book in 15 years (after Make No Law and Gideon's Trumpet). Some suppressions of free speech passed constitutional muster in their day: the 1798 Sedition Act criminalized criticism of the president, and the WWI-era Sedition Act sentenced a minister to 15 years in prison for telling his Bible class that a Christian can take no part in the war. Law professor and Pulitzer Prizeβwinning ex-New York Times columnist Lewis explores other First Amendment legal quagmires, including libel law, privacy issues, the press's shielding of confidential sources, obscenity and hate speech. Not quite a free speech absolutist, he's for punishing speech that urges terrorist violence to an audience... whose members are ready to act. Lewis's story is about the advancement of freedom by the likes of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Louis Brandeis and others whose bold judicial decisions have made the country what it is. The result is an occasionally stirring account of America's evolving idea of liberty.
Review
"[A] heroic account of how courageous judges in the 20th century created the modern First Amendment."β Jeffrey Rosen , **New York Times Book Review****
Mr. Lewis does a remarkable job of presenting the history and scope of freedom of thought...a concise and wise book."β * * Economist******
"[Lewis] looks behind the printed page to scrutinize the experiences and values of the men and women whose utterances are given the force of law. The result is a short history of the First Amendment that is always illuminating and sometimes rollicking."β * Los Angeles Times*****
"Lewis blends a profound understanding of First Amendment jurisprudence and history with an enjoyable writing style that his readers have long come to admire. In our war-torn era where dissent and open-minded debate have become problematic, Lewis compels us to remember the crucial function free speech serves in our democratic form of government."β * Christian Science Monitor*****
"It's hard to imagine a book about legal history reading like a page-turner, but this one does. The Supreme Court justices whose decisions have shaped our country emerge as conflicted and principled human beings. The questions that have yet to be settled press impatiently against the book's pages, reminding us that the First Amendment continues to shift under our feet even as we read."β * Providence Journal*****
Has Cover : Yes
All Identifiers : amazon:B0032YXH8I, goodreads:7811207, isbn:9780465012930
Number of Words in Auth: 2
Formats : EPUB
Number of Formats : 1
Single Author : Anthony Lewis
Original Source : New_Files_Horla_11_13
Sorted Author by LN, FN: Lewis, Anthony
Title Length : 071
Title Parm D : Freedom for the Thought That We Hate_A Biography of the First Amendment
Title Parm F : Freedom for the Thought That We Hate_A Biography of the First Amendment
Title Parm A : Freedom for the Thought That We Hate_A Biography of the First Amendment
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ES Lib Name : NIRC 2019-11
Record ID : 10353
Uncomma Author : Anthony Lewis
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