Research Topic Starters

"The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made." --P.J. O'Rourke Hailed as the "first freedom," free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat. In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders--from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Rāzī, to the anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and modern-day digital activists--Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech, too, is a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all stripes. Meticulously researched and deeply humane, Free Speech demonstrates how much we have gained from this principle--and how much we stand to lose without it.

In an age of divisiveness, perhaps more than America has seen in decades, identity politics has taken its share of the blame. Those who have cheered on progressive ideology often write off detractors as racists, homophobes, and misogynists. And those who rail against political correctness often feel their own voices are not being heard or, worse, are being censored. Do identity politics come at a cost to national empathy and unity? Or do they reflect and address legitimate discrimination? Through multiple perspectives, readers will learn why this topic has become a hot button issue.

Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment? "An urgent and indispensable roadmap to guide us through one of the most divisive periods in American history."--Stephen Rohde, Los Angeles Review of Books Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry. In this clear and carefully reasoned book, a university chancellor and a law school dean--both constitutional scholars who teach a course in free speech to undergraduates--argue that campuses must provide supportive learning environments for an increasingly diverse student body but can never restrict the expression of ideas.

This book features new perspectives on the ethics and politics of free speech. Contributors draw on insights from philosophy, psychology, political theory, journalism, literature, and history to respond to pressing problems involving free speech in liberal societies. Recent years have seen an explosion of academic interest in these topics. However, most recent work has focused on constitutional protections for free speech and on issues related to academic freedom and campus politics. The chapters in this volume set their sights more broadly on the non-state problems that we collectively face in attempting to realize a healthy environment for free discourse.

Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right and a core value in liberal democracies. It is also, however, one of our time’s most contested issues, constantly claimed to be either too wide-ranging, at the peril of vulnerable minority groups, or too limited, restricting dissent and democratic deliberation. Employing a sociological lens on the dynamics of the public sphere, this book investigates how the boundaries of free speech are contested and negotiated through social processes which silence certain groups and opinions while amplifying others.