The Death of Discourse

by Ronald K.L. Collins and 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.