Jonathan Zimmerman Livres

In America we like to think we live in a land of liberty, where everyone can say whatever they want. Throughout our history, however, we have also been quick to censor people who offend or frighten us. We talk a good game about freedom of speech, then we turn around and deny it to others. In this brief but bracing book, historian Jonathan Zimmerman and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson tell the story of free speech in who established it, who has denounced it, and who has risen to its defense. They also make the case for why we should care about it today, when free speech is once again under attack. Across the political spectrum, Americans have demanded the suppression of ideas and images that allegedly threaten our nation. But the biggest danger to America comes not from speech but from censorship, which prevents us from freely governing ourselves. Free speech allows us to criticize our leaders. It lets us consume the art, film, and literature we prefer. And, perhaps most importantly, it allows minorities to challenge the oppression they suffer. While any of us are censored, none of us are free.

In this expanded edition of his 2002 book, Zimmerman surveys how battles over public education have become conflicts at the heart of American national identity. Critical Race Theory. The 1619 Project. Mask mandates. As the headlines remind us, American public education is still wracked by culture wars. But these conflicts have shifted sharply over the past two decades, from religious issues to national ones, marking larger changes in the ways that Americans imagine themselves. From the Scopes Trial over evolution in the 1920s through battles over school prayer in the '80s and '90s, the twentieth century's bitterest school battles were tied to questions of faith. By contrast, America forged truces over history instruction by adding new groups to a shared patriotic story of freedom and progress. Jonathan Zimmerman forecast as much in his 2002 book, Whose America? Twenty years later, though, Zimmerman has reconsidered: arguments over what American history is, what it means, and how it is taught have exploded with special force in recent years, whether over Confederate monuments, the naming of buildings and institutions, or the very definition of patriotism. In this substantially expanded new edition, Zimmerman meditates on the history of the culture wars in the classroom--and on what our inability to find common ground might mean for our future.

Anyone who wants to change college teaching will have to start here.

The book explores the historical roots of drug and alcohol education in public schools, tracing its origins to the grassroots movement led by Mary Hanchett Hunt and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union over a century ago. It highlights the conflict between citizen involvement and expert authority in shaping educational content, revealing how Scientific Temperance Instruction became a mandated part of curricula despite opposition. Jonathan Zimmerman examines the broader implications of this struggle for democracy and expertise, shedding light on ongoing tensions in contemporary education regarding public influence and values.

Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know(R) provides the first even-handed look at political controversy on American university campuses, from struggles over "political correctness" to recent battles over racism, speech codes, and sexual assault.