How free speech saved democracy The untold history of how the First Amendment became an essential tool for securing liberty and social justice

Finan, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, shows "how the powerless have used free speech to pursue [the promise of] equal rights for all." Finan says little about how the First Amendment came to be, and his discussion of protecting religious expression is not all that thorough. Nevertheless, this illustrated, concise book is timely, discussing protests after the police murder of George Floyd, the critical race theory controversy, and the regulation of online speech. Finan also offers clear explanations of free speech statutes and court cases, including libel law. Finan details the American Library Association's long-standing support of free speech, its Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read Statement, and support of librarians confronting censorship. He excels in using stories to bring free speech issues to life. Some individuals he portrays are well-known: John Quincy Adams, Frederick Douglass, Emma Goldman, President Eisenhower, Colin Kaepernick, and Teller of the duo Penn and Teller. Those who are lesser known are equally important and compelling, including anti-Federalist congressmen, abolitionists, women's suffragists, trade unionists, anarchists, civil rights activists, and environmentalists. Accessible, useful, and relevant.

Finan (From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act), chairman of the National Coalition Against Censorship, issues a full-throated defense of free expression in this sharply focused history. Noting that in recent years progressives have begun to advocate for restrictions on language they regard as "hate speech," Finan sketches the history of the labor, antislavery, women's suffrage, antiwar, and civil rights movements in America to show how crucial the First Amendment has been to these and other progressive causes. He's particularly insightful in explaining instances in which national security has been used as a justification for restricting free speech, noting that the 1917 Espionage Act was used broadly by the federal government to crack down on opponents of U.S. foreign policy, leading to prison sentences for prominent activists like Socialist Party leader Eugene Debs, as well as ordinary citizens, including a group of 30 South Dakotans of German extraction who petitioned the state's governor to reform draft laws. Making an airtight case that those who wish to restrict speech will always present their reasons for doing so as a product of extraordinary times, Finan issues a stark warning against encroaching on the freedom of expression. Progressives will want to take heed. (Apr.)

A historical demonstration of the indispensability of the First Amendment. The amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Who could argue against that? Finan--executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship and former director of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression--shows how corrupt politicians, bigots, reactionaries, and educated people who should know better have opposed freedom for those with beliefs they found disagreeable on grounds that those beliefs could cause harm. Finan's history includes plenty of triumphs but leaves the impression that there is always more work to do. During the 19th century, both abolitionists and women's rights advocates achieved many of their goals, but freedom for Black Americans and voting for women turned out to be only partial victories. The author devotes much space to the 20th- and 21st-century civil rights and feminist movements, which have endured countless struggles and even violence. Despite impressive achievements, both movements still face significant barriers, particularly from conservative legislators. War has always been a disaster for free speech, but the increase in government surveillance allowed in the Patriot Act following 9/11 is small potatoes compared to the situation during World War II, which featured massive censorship and arrests and the internment of Japanese American citizens. "While we live in a country where injustice persists," writes Finan, "the [U.S.] is a far more democratic country today than it was two hundred years ago or even sixty years ago." At the same time, the author discusses how progressives and activists for marginalized communities have taken up the traditional conservative penchant for suppressing opinions they find obnoxious, especially in universities and arts organizations. Randall Kennedy provides the foreword. An earnest and timely argument for the enduring value of the First Amendment. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

INTRODUCTION From the beginning of American history, people have used free speech to advocate for increased equality. Often, they have been people lacking political power, like the 3,000 Black men and women who gathered in Philadelphia in 1817 to protest plans of the American Colonization Society to send them "back" to Africa, or reformers who gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 to demand that women receive equal rights, including the right to vote, or workers who fought for more than a century for the right to organize unions and strike for a living wage. Conservatives seeking to retain power, even, or especially, when they were in the minority, have tended to fight change: Federalists who supported voting rights only for men of wealth, Democrats who supported slavery, and present-day Republicans who target people from historically marginalized groups with legislation that restricts ballot access. Defenders of slavery violently attacked abolitionists without fear of arrest or retribution. Judges threw suffragists into jail for picketing the White House and fed them through rubber hoses when they staged hunger strikes. Government used troops to crush strikes. In announcing the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr. explained that he intended to push the right to protest to the limit. "The only weapon that we have in our hands is the weapon of protest," he said. "If we were incarcerated behind the iron curtains of a communistic country -- we couldn't do this. If we were trapped in the dungeon of a totalitarian regime -- we couldn't do this. But the great glory of American democracy is the right to protest for the right." Segregationists did everything they could to thwart civil rights protests. They launched a legal attack on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Police used fire hoses and attack dogs to disrupt demonstrations. The Ku Klux Klan killed civil rights workers. As a new age of protest has dawned, the fight for social change continues. Millions of women marched a day after Donald Trump took office in 2017. Later, high school kids across the country left their classrooms to protest gun violence. The Black Lives Matter movement sent demonstrators into the streets of hundreds of communities. Protests catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd while handcuffed by police in Minneapolis were the largest in American history. This is the story of how the powerless have used free speech to pursue the promise of equal rights for all, and how it continues to fuel the fight for democracy. Excerpted from How Free Speech Saved Democracy: The Untold History of How the First Amendment Became an Essential Tool for Secur Ing Liberty and Social Justice by Christopher M. Finan All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.