What do you think?
Rate this book
When Freedom Speaks: The Boundaries and the Boundlessness of Our First Amendment Right
This book makes first amendment issues immediate and contemporary.
When Freedom Speaks chronicles the stories behind our First Amendment right to speak our minds. Lynn Levine Greenky’s background as a lawyer, rhetorician, and teacher gives her a unique perspective on the protection we have from laws that abridge our right to the freedom of speech. Rhetoricians focus on language and how it influences perception and moves people to action. Powerfully employing that rhetorical approach, this book explores concepts related to free speech as moral narratives that proscribe the boundaries of our constitutionally protected right. Using the characters and drama embedded in legal cases that elucidate First Amendment principles, When Freedom Speaks makes the concepts easier to understand and clearly applicable to our lives. With a wide range of examples and accessible language, this book is the perfect overview of the First Amendment.
When Freedom Speaks chronicles the stories behind our First Amendment right to speak our minds. Lynn Levine Greenky’s background as a lawyer, rhetorician, and teacher gives her a unique perspective on the protection we have from laws that abridge our right to the freedom of speech. Rhetoricians focus on language and how it influences perception and moves people to action. Powerfully employing that rhetorical approach, this book explores concepts related to free speech as moral narratives that proscribe the boundaries of our constitutionally protected right. Using the characters and drama embedded in legal cases that elucidate First Amendment principles, When Freedom Speaks makes the concepts easier to understand and clearly applicable to our lives. With a wide range of examples and accessible language, this book is the perfect overview of the First Amendment.
246 pages, Paperback
Published May 24, 2022
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 3, 2023
More a litany than an exhaustive inquiry into the evolution of free speech as defined and refined by the Supreme Court of the United States. Such a subject would be just as worthy of a 2500-page tome authored by William T. Vollmann (and what a glory such a thing may be) than what is presented here, which is good but feels abbreviated. It's naturally a huge subject, and a history of the protection of speech extending not just to the American experiment but as it applies throughout world history would have been welcome. My guess is that the ancient Greeks may have a word or two to say. Still, the book is well done and smart. I just wish it were longer.
August 31, 2024
I can’t say I recommend this book. As a First Amendment lawyer, I thought this might give a little more context to the famous cases or provide unique commentary, but it just summarized a First Amendment law course.
Great to listen to if you’re avoiding studying for finals or want to feel like you’ve taken a FA law class. Other than that, it missed the mark. It’s too basic of an explanation of FA law for an expert and not interesting enough for a laymen.
Great to listen to if you’re avoiding studying for finals or want to feel like you’ve taken a FA law class. Other than that, it missed the mark. It’s too basic of an explanation of FA law for an expert and not interesting enough for a laymen.
July 1, 2022
Interesting read
September 6, 2022
Good primer on First Amendment/freedom of speech issues.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews