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Freedom for the Thought That We Hate
Anthony Lewis
A Biography of the First Amendment
Basic Books
January 2008
On Sale: January 1, 2008
221 pages ISBN: 0465039170 EAN: 9780465039173 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
From one of the country's most esteemed experts on the First
Amendment and the author of the classic Gideon's Trumpet, an
eloquent essay on the importance of freedom of expression. More than any other people on earth, Americans are free to
say and write what they think. The media can air the secrets
of the White House, the boardroom, or the bedroom with
little fear of punishment or penalty. The reason for this
extraordinary freedom is not a superior culture of
tolerance, but just fourteen words in our most fundamental
legal document: the free expression clauses of the First
Amendment to the Constitution. In Lewis's telling, the story of how the right of free
expression evolved along with our nation makes a compelling
case for the adaptability of our constitution. Although
Americans have gleefully and sometimes outrageously
exercised their right to free speech since before the
nation's founding, the Supreme Court did not begin to
recognize this right until 1919. Freedom of speech and the
press as we know it today is surprisingly recent. Anthony
Lewis tells us how these rights were created, revealing a
story of hard choices, heroic (and some less heroic) judges,
and fascinating and eccentric defendants who forced the
legal system to come face-to-face with one of America's
great founding ideas.
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