Free speech, "the people's darling privilege": struggles for freedom of expression in American history

Abstract

Free Speech, The People's Darling Privilege: Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History Michael Kent Curtis. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2000. 520 pp. ISBN 0-8223-2529-2. $32.95.In this book, Prof. Curtis (Wake Forest University School of Law) provides a thorough account of the evolution of free speech, in theory and practice, from pre-Revolutionary times through the Civil War and the Fourteenth Amendment (i868). As a history book, it is worthy of being in the library of every high school, college, and university that teaches American history, and would also be very useful and instructive as a textbook for university courses in American studies and advanced courses in American history.By now, many persons regard the First Amendment and its provision for free speech as a statement of a natural, inalienable right, and in a sense tend to take it for granted. Curtis has accumulated, discussed, and analyzed an impressive amount of historical evidence and documentation that serve as strong reminders that the struggles to achieve and to maintain free speech have never been easy ones, even long after the ratification of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Along this line, Curtis observes that many free speech problems tend to recur, the ideas of the past are not so alien from present concerns as they might seem at (p. 20).Various legal fine points relating to free speech are often discussed and debated by scholars and lawyers who are specialists in constitutional law or First Amendment issues. On the other hand, Curtis approaches the subject from a broader standpoint-if not a populist perspective-when he states, Politicians, lawyers, and judges have a special duty to protect free speech. But free speech is too important to leave exclusively to the judges, lawyers, and politicians. It belongs to the American people (p. 2i). In fact, one of the most impressive aspects of the book is the number of unsung or relatively unknown heroes whose valiant, persistent struggles are described in vivid detail. Many persons who know about Patrick Henry, or John Peter Zenger and his struggle for freedom of the press, might not necessarily know as much (or anything at all) about John Lilburne, William Walwyn, and their Leveller colleagues who fought for freedom of speech and the press in the i7th century. Other persons whose e∂orts on behalf of free speech are described by Curtis include Matthew Lyon, Tunis, Wortman, John Thomson, William Ellery Channing, Elijah Lovejoy, Daniel Worth (to name just a few).Whereas coverage and discussions of free speech struggles through about i868 are detailed and well-documented, when it comes to the 20th century, Curtis refers to his treatment of the subject (in Chapter i7, and the Conclusion) in terms of A Very Quick Review (p. 384), with a tendency to summarize in a manner that is brief and general (p. 385). In fact, he even made suggestions to eliminate or greatly condense Chapter i7, which deal with Suppression Theories in the Twentieth Century (pp. 384-385). Such suggestions seem rather curious, first of all because Curtis has recently written quite extensively on the subject (i995, i996), but also because contemporary free speech problems are very acute and of strong interest to many persons, specialists and non-specialists alike. …