Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other - Softcover

The current challenges to the First Amendment are exposed and answered by a widely recognized authority on civil rights and liberties.

Some years ago, Clark Kerr, then president of the University of California, said: "The purpose of a university is to make students safe for ideas--not ideas safe for students." More recently, "thought police" operating on all levels of education and from all parts of the political spectrum have taken the opposite tack. In a thoughtful analysis of free expression, Hentoff indicts those from the right and the left who would suppress the rights of individuals to voice opposing viewpoints. He deals with traditional censors--religious fundamentalists and political right-wingers--but does not neglect the new ones, e.g., feminists who tried to prevent a pro-life women's group from participating in Yale University's Women's Center. He also takes on proponents of "hate speech" regulations as enemies of free expression. Long recognized as a crusading First Amendment purist, Hentoff has written extensively on the subject in newspaper and magazine columns and in such books as The First Freedom (Delacorte, 1988) and a YA novel, The Day They Came To Arrest the Book (Delacorte, 1982. o.p.). His new book belongs in all libraries.
- Sue Kimm, Inglewood P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.