The Fight for Free Speech Ten Cases That Define Our First Amendment Freedoms by Ian Rosenberg
309 Pages
Publisher: NYU Press
Release Date: February 9, 2021
Nonfiction (Adult), Politics, Political, Government, Freedom
The book is divided into the following chapters.
Chapter 1: The Women’s March and the marketplace of Ideas
Chapter 2: Take a Knee and the Pledge of Allegiance
Chapter 3: Libel, Actual Malice, and the Civil Rights Movement
Chapter 4: Student Speech from the Vietnam War to the National School Walkout
Chapter 5: Stormy Daniels, Prior Restraints, and the Pentagon Papers
Chapter 6: Flipping Off the President and Fuck the Draft
Chapter 7: Samantha Bee, Seven Dirty Words, and Indecency
Chapter 8: Saturday Night Live, Hustler, and the Power of Parody
Chapter 9: Nazis in Charlottesville, Funeral Protests, and Speakers We Hate
Chapter 10: Social Media and the “Vast Democratic Forums of the Internet”
The author goes into detail explaining the history behind the first amendment. He also discusses the many decisions by the Supreme Court and how those decisions affected people. Some of the information was new to me, for example the salute that was originally used with the pledge of allegiance was like the German salute. It is important to realize freedom of speech includes the right to protest but does not include censorship.
This book is a must read. The author has an easy-to-read writing style. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in American politics or people’s rights.
