Speech Stories: How Free Can Speech Be?
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About the Book
When we talk about what "freedom of speech" means in America, the discussion almost always centers on freedom rather than speech. Taking for granted that speech is an unambiguous and stable category, we move to considering how much freedom speech should enjoy. But, as Randall Bezanson demonstrates in Speech Stories, speech is a much more complicated and dynamic notion than we often assume. In an age of rapidly accelerated changes in discourse combined with new technologies of communication, the boundaries and substance of what we traditionally deem speech are being reconfigured in novel and confusing ways. In order to spark thought, discussion, and debate about these complexities and ambiguities, Bezanson probes the "stories" behind seven controversial free speech cases decided by the Supreme Court. These stories touch upon the most controversial and significant of contemporary first amendment issues: government restrictions on hate speech and obscene and indecent speech; pornography and the subordination of women; the constitutionality of campaign finance reform; and the treatment to be accorded new technologies of communication under the Constitution. The result is a provocative engagement of the reader in thinking about the puzzles and paradoxes of our commitment to free expression.
Book Details
ISBN-13: 9780814713211
EAN: 9780814713211
Publisher Date: 01 Jan 1998
Dewey: 342.730
Language: English
MediaMail: Y
PrintOnDemand: Y
Series Title: English
Width: 150 mm
ISBN-10: 0814713211
Publisher: New York University Press
Binding: Paperback
Height: 225 mm
LCCN: 97-33821
No of Pages: 232
Returnable: N
Spine Width: 15 mm