New from the Southern Illinois University Press:
An Indispensable Liberty: The Fight for Free Speech in Nineteenth-Century America Paperback (March 2016), by
Mary M. Cronin (New Mexico State University). A description from the Press:
Most Americans today view freedom of speech as a bedrock of all other
liberties, a defining feature of American citizenship. During the
nineteenth century, the popular concept of American freedom of speech
was still being formed. In An Indispensable Liberty: The Fight for Free Speech in Nineteenth-Century America, contributors examine attempts to restrict freedom of speech and the press during and after the Civil War.
The eleven essays that make up this collection show how, despite
judicial, political, and public proclamations of support for freedom of
expression, factors like tradition, gender stereotypes, religion, and
fear of social unrest often led to narrow judicial and political
protection for freedom of expression by people whose views upset the
status quo. These views, expressed by abolitionists, suffragists, and
labor leaders, challenged rigid cultural mores of the day, and many
political and cultural leaders feared that extending freedom of
expression to agitators would undermine society. The Civil War
intensified questions about the duties and privileges of citizenship.
After the war, key conflicts over freedom of expression were triggered
by Reconstruction, suffrage, the Comstock Act, and questions about
libel.
The volume’s contributors blend social, cultural, and
intellectual history to untangle the complicated strands of
nineteenth-century legal thought. By chronicling the development of
modern-day notions of free speech, this timely collection offers both a
valuable exploration of the First Amendment in nineteenth-century
America and a useful perspective on the challenges we face today.
A few blurbs:
“As An Indispensable Liberty so clearly demonstrates, freedom of
speech is one of the signal pillars of a healthy democracy. And yet,
though this freedom is proclaimed by the First Amendment, many judicial,
political, and sociocultural issues had to be addressed in the
nineteenth century before it could be reified as legal right. In sum,
this worthy volume’s underlying narrative is the ongoing challenges to
the voices of a nation yearning to be truly free.”— David Abrahamson
“An Indispensable Liberty’s
strong contribution to our knowledge of the fight for freedom of
expression in the nineteenth century and the quality of its scholarship
will be welcomed by a number of audiences.”— David B. Sachsman
More information is available
here.
