Right Speech

Soviet Union, 1956: Stalin is dead. With his passing, a violent regime is beginning to fracture - leaving behind a society where the police are the criminals, and the criminals are innocent. The catalyst comes when a secret manifesto composed by Stalin's successor Khrushchev is distributed to...

Brought to you by Penguin. A fresh and exciting approach to one of the most controversial subjects of our time ‘Free Speech!’ is a clarion call all over the world, yet what it means today is more contested than ever. Many cultures regard it as dangerous: in China, India, and across the...

Bloomsbury presents The Right to Speak, written and read by Patsy Rodenburg. "It shouldn’t surprise us that politicians, clerics, rock singers as well as actors queue up to train their voices under the supervision of Patsy Rodenburg. This book will explain her popularity among her pupils." –...

Brought to you by Penguin. A powerful and urgent explanation and vindication of our human rights and freedoms After the devastation of World War Two, the international community came together to enshrine fundamental rights to refuge, health, education and living standards, for privacy, fair...

Winner of the Best Picture Oscar 2011 Award. One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century – amazingly he was an almost unknown, and certainly unqualified, speech therapist called Lionel Logue, whom one newspaper in the 1930s famously dubbed ‘The Quack who saved a King’. Logue wasn’t a British aristocrat or even an Englishman – he was a commoner and an Australian to boot.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal,” Elizabeth Cady Stanton said at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. One-hundred of the 300 convention attendees signed this speech that, modeled on the Constitution, served as a declaration of the women’s rights movement. Stanton did not mince words when she stated, “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her.”

A “timely and brilliant original” (Michael B. Mukasey, former US attorney general) look at freedom of speech—our most basic right and the one that protects all the others. Free speech is a human right, and the free expression of thought is at the very essence of being human. The United...

In an illuminating new preface, Strossen lays out the multiple current assaults on sexual expression, which continue to come from across the ideological spectrum. She shows that freedom for such expression remains an essential prerequisite for the equality, safety, and dignity of women and sexual/gender minorities.

The president of Princeton, a constitutional scholar, reveals how colleges are getting free speech on campuses right and how they can do better to nurture civil discourse and foster mutual respect Conversations about higher education teem with accusations that American colleges and universities...

A powerful debunking of First Amendment orthodoxy that critiques "reckless speech," which endangers vulnerable groups, and elevates "fearless speech," which seeks to advance equality and democracy. Freedom of speech has never been more important—or more controversial. From debates about what's...

This concise but comprehensive book lays out specific answers to myriad topical questions about free speech law, and also general explanations of how and why the law distinguishes between protected and punishable speech. The book focuses on modern First Amendment law, explaining the historic factors that propelled its evolution in a more speech-protective direction—in particular, the Civil Rights Movement. It highlights the many cases, involving multiple issues, in which robust speech-protective principles aided advocates of racial justice and other human rights causes. 

From the beginning of American history, free speech has been crucial for the pursuit of justice and expansion of democracy. Yet today, we are seeing growing attempts to roll back free speech protections in America: cultural warriors are banning books from library shelves at a level not seen in decades, and elected officials are attacking free speech principles to undermine other rights and consolidate their own power.

“A historical demonstration of the indispensability of the First Amendment [and] … an earnest and timely argument for [its] enduring value.” —Kirkus Reviews "Great storytelling about the history and importance of the First Amendment, from someone who has spent his life defending — and...

In The Most Human Right, Eric Heinze explains why global human rights systems have failed. International organizations constantly report on how governments manage human goods, such as fair trials, humane conditions of detention, healthcare, or housing. But to appease autocratic regimes, experts have ignored the primacy of free speech. Heinze argues that goods become rights only when citizens can claim them publicly and fearlessly: free speech is the fundamental right, without which the very concept of a “right” makes no sense. 

Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment? 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.

The Practical Guide to Free Speech turns one of America’s most misunderstood freedoms into an engaging, surprisingly fun exploration of how the First Amendment actually works. Imagine a world where an off-color joke or unpopular opinion could land you in jail. For most of human history, that wasn’t imagination — it was reality. The First Amendment changed everything.

A hard-hitting expose that shines a light on the powerful conservative forces that have waged a multi-decade battle to hijack the meaning of free speech--and how we can reclaim it. There's a critical debate taking place over one of our most treasured rights: free speech. We argue about whether...

This collection charts the history of American civil rights from the perspective of seven different US presidents in the modern era from the 1950s to the present. The collection includes speeches from Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and Obama with additional detail and context from Matthew Ross. Presidential speeches are presented in a full and in context. This offers a unique way to follow the topic of civil rights over decades.

Speech is the life blood of democracy, but only if we understand its true meaning, and its role in sustaining our government. Key texts from the U.S. Supreme Court, John Stuart Mill, Alexander Meiklejohn, Ida B. Wells and Charles Lawrence illuminate the immediate questions and pressing issues of...

Though Andrew Bushard does not claim to possess video game expertise, he does appreciate video games. Video games and the First Amendment go hand in hand, so let us now promote them both!