Outspoken
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€28.50
A01=Nan Levinson
american politics
Author_Nan Levinson
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
defenders of free speech
democracy
enemies of america
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
equality
fireman
first amendment
free speech
free speech debates
government and governing
government misconduct
guatemala
journalism sources
lgbt literature
lgbtqia
literature in the classroom
performance art
political dissent
politics
porn star
prison
privacy
puerto rico
revolution
secret information
security
suppression
surveillance
surveillance powers
united states of america
war on terror
war on terrorism
Product details
- ISBN 9780520249974
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2006
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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With the government granting itself sweeping new surveillance powers, castigating its critics as unpatriotic, and equating differing opinions with abetting 'America's enemies', free speech seems an early casualty of the war on terrorism. But as this book brilliantly demonstrates, to sacrifice our freedom of speech is to surrender the very heart and soul of America. Nan Levinson tells the stories of twenty people who refused to let anyone whittle away at their right to speak, think, create, or demur as they pleased. Among these sometimes unlikely defenders of the cause of free speech are a diplomat who disclosed secret information about government misconduct in Guatemala, a Puerto Rican journalist who risked going to prison to protect her sources, a high school teacher who discussed gays and lesbians in literature, a fireman who fought for his right to read Playboy at work, and a former porn star who defended her performance piece as art. Caught up in conflicts that are alarming, complex, confusing, mean, or just plain silly, their cases are both emblematic and individually revealing, affording readers a rich variety of perspectives on the issues surrounding free speech debates.
In an engaging, anecdotal style, Levinson explores the balance between First Amendment and other rights, such as equality, privacy, and security; the relationship among behavior, speech, and images; the tangle of suppression, marketing, and politics; and the role of dissent in our society. These issues come to vibrant life in the stories recounted in Outspoken, stories that - whether heroic or infamous, outrageous or straightforward - remind us again and again of the power of words and of the strength of a democracy of voices.
Nan Levinson is a journalist in Boston and a lecturer at Tufts University.
