The Death of Discourse

by Ronald K.L. Collins, David M. Skover, David M Skover

Book Overview

In this innovative book, the authors persuasively argue that the First Amendment to the Constitution has risen in the late twentieth century, like an ill-guided individual with knife in hand, to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813327237
• ISBN13: 9780813327235
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Death of Discourse

This is an elegant, insightful, thought-provoking look at, essentially, the struggle between two different ideas of the First Amendment: The rather narrow notion of the First Amendment as protecting only political speech or speech that enhances democratic debate versus the more free-wheeling idea that the First Amendment protects all speech, from pornography to offensive literature. While I believe a truly free society must embrace the latter position, I find the authors compellingly present the views on both sides of the issue, and they do so via a playful, socratic dialectic rather than a dry rehashing of esoteric law review articles. I recommend this book for anyone who seeks to understand the pressure the first amendment is subjected to by our modern society.