With a novelist's flair, noted free speech authorities, Ronald K. L. Collins and David Skover tell the true story of an American maverick who refused to play it safe and who in the process gave staying power to freedom of the press in America.
America values dissent. It tolerates, encourages, and protects it. But what is this thing we value? That is a question never asked. "Dissent" is treated as a known fact. For all that has been said about dissent - in books, articles, judicial opinions, and popular culture - it is remarkable that no one has devoted much, if any, ink to explaining what dissent is. No one has attempted to sketch its philosophical, linguistic, legal, or cultural meanings or usages. There is a need to develop some clarity about this phenomenon we call dissent, for not every difference of opinion, symbolic gesture, public activity in opposition to government policy, incitement to direct action, revolutionary effort, or political assassination need be tagged dissent. In essence, we have no conceptual yardstick. It is just that measure of meaning that On Dissent offers.
Chronicles the courtroom battles Lenny Bruce engaged in in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where he was arrested for his provocative and controversial performances critiquing the hypocrisies of American society.
Offers a First Amendment approach to defend against governmental censorship of the newest form of technological expression: robotic speech.
Using Machiavelli's The Prince as its model, Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover's The Judge offers judges advice on how to be effective political actors.