Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil LibertarianismContemporary civil libertarians claim that their works preserve a worthy American tradition of defending free-speech rights dating back to the framing of the First Amendment. Transforming Free Speech challenges the worthiness, and indeed the very existence of one uninterrupted libertarian tradition. Mark A. Graber asserts that in the past, broader political visions inspired libertarian interpretations of the First Amendment. In reexamining the philosophical and jurisprudential foundations of the defense of expression rights from the Civil War to the present, he exposes the monolithic free-speech tradition as a myth. Instead of one conception of the system of free expression, two emerge: the conservative libertarian tradition that dominated discourse from the Civil War until World War I, and the civil libertarian tradition that dominates later twentieth-century argument. The essence of the current perception of the American free-speech tradition derives from the writings of Zechariah Chafee, Jr. (1885-1957), the progressive jurist most responsible for the modern interpretation of the First Amendment. His interpretation, however, deliberately obscured earlier libertarian arguments linking liberty of speech with liberty of property. Moreover, Chafee stunted the development of a more radical interpretation of expression rights that would give citizens the resources and independence necessary for the effective exercise of free speech. Instead, Chafee maintained that the right to political and social commentary could be protected independent of material inequalities that might restrict access to the marketplace of ideas. His influence enfeebled expression rights in a world where their exercise depends increasingly on economic power. Untangling the libertarian legacy, Graber points out the disjunction in the libertarian tradition to show that free-speech rights, having once been transformed, can be transformed again. Well-conceived and original in perspective, Transforming Free Speech will interest political theorists, students of government, and anyone interested in the origins of the free-speech tradition in the United States. |
Contents
The Conservative Libertarian Defense of Free Speech | 17 |
The Progressive Era | 50 |
Progressive Responses to Free Speech Conflict | 75 |
Libertarianism | 101 |
Zechariah Chafees Achievements | 122 |
The Triumph and Tragedy of Civil Libertarianism | 165 |
Other editions - View all
Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism Mark A. Graber Limited preview - 1991 |
Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism Mark A. Graber Limited preview - 2023 |
Transforming Free Speech: The Ambiguous Legacy of Civil Libertarianism Mark A. Graber Limited preview - 2023 |
Common terms and phrases
Abrams activism on behalf Addams advocacy American argued argument asserted believed Brandeis Burgess campaign finance campaign finance reform Chafee Chafee's citizens clear and present conservative libertarian constitutional defense constitutionally contemporary Cooley debate declared defense of free democratic process Dewey discussion doctrines due process clause early civil libertarians economic elected officials Emerson endorsed Espionage Act expression rights federal Fourteenth Amendment free speech free-speech rights freedom of contract freedom of expression freedom of speech Freund Gitlow governmental Holmes Ibid insisted intellectual interpretation judges judicial activism jurists Justice Kallen laissez-faire legislation legislature libertarian tradition liberty limited Lochner maintained marketplace of ideas Meiklejohn ment nomic opinion persons policies political dissent Pound present danger test principles private property progressive proponents protection Rabban regulate restrictions Schroeder 1916 sion social interest sociological jurisprudence speakers statute Supreme Court system of freedom thinkers thought Tiedeman tion tional treatise writers twentieth-century United York York Times Co