"Solomon’s mix of close history...and accessible popular history reiterates the value of examining the historical precedents to America’s revered commitment to freedom of expression." —Publisher's Weekly
"A cogent, organized history of the beginnings of free speech in the United States." —Kirkus Reviews
"Stephen Solomon has with singular creativity and command of an elusive subject crafted in Revolutionary Dissent a masterful account of how the nation’s founding generation secured constitutional protection for free speech and press. What emerges in this seminal work is a four-century account of a uniquely American doctrine of free expression, at a time when no other nation – even those as close as Canada and Australia and all other Western democracies – remotely matched the U.S. example in this regard. Solomon has distilled the remarkably varied commitment to enduring core values of free expression by those patriots who comprised the “founding generation.” A masterful “Afterword” reminds us that, despite its sharp divisions, even an otherwise contentious high Court retains such a consensus." —Robert O'Neil, University Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia School of Law
"The right to speak freely, especially about important political matters, and then to voice opinions others vigorously condemn, is essential to any society that prizes democratic values, and it is a right that is always attacked as a destabilizing and counter-productive force. That is as true today, as it was during the 1950s, the 1920s, World War I, the Civil War, and John Adam’s presidency. It is into this endless struggle over preserving democratic vitality that Stephen D. Solomon submits his stunning, fascinating, and engaging history of how the nation’s Founding Generation gave a wide berth to the expression of political dissent. It is a remarkable work of scholarship that exudes freshness and is written for a broad audience." —David Rudenstine, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law's Sheldon H. Solow Professor of Law, Yeshiva University
"Solomon’s compelling stories of the raucous political speech of the founding generation give us a ringside seat to the protest rallies, provocative cartoons and clever rhetoric that forever embedded freedom of expression in our national character. Revolutionary Dissent is a must-read for all who want to understand the birth of free speech and press in America and how essential it is to continue protecting these freedoms in our democracy." —Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor, New York Law School
"This splendid book contains nine snapshots of courageous Americans combatting prosecution for seditious libel...Solomon’s cumulative accounts of freedom-loving Americans could well be used today in interpreting First Amendment cases...engagingly written." —John P. Kaminski, Director, The Center for the Study of the American Revolution, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2016-02-04
Accessible study of America's fierce devotion to freedom of speech through the vociferous public reactions to Britain's perceived tyranny. First Amendment scholar Solomon (Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York Univ.; Ellery's Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer, 2007, etc.) spotlights how Colonial citizens and patriots—e.g., minister John Wise, irrepressible newspapers editors, silversmith Paul Revere, farmer John Dickinson, and others—challenged the seditious libel law that the American Colonies had inherited from England. The inherited law prohibited political dissent that would sow discord or slander "between the King and his people" and was aimed at keeping the relationship between sovereign and subject intact. However, as Solomon reveals in orderly chapters, the colonists would not stand by quietly when taxed without self-representation, as first articulated by outspoken Puritan minister Wise in 1687 when he criticized Massachusetts Gov. Edmund Andros for imposing unfair tax policy. Normally, the fines and physical punishment would have been severe. However, with time, the citizen-held juries would not uphold the seditious libel law in court, much to the consternation of chief justice of Massachusetts and governor Thomas Hutchinson when trying to silence the radical Boston Gazette publishers, Benjamin Edes and John Gill, from criticizing him in an important case in 1767. Solomon looks at the rise of newspapers, "coffeehouse culture," broadsides, political theater, cartoons, and even symbols such as effigies and the Liberty Tree in Boston as significant in whipping up public foment. They were all part of the Enlightenment convictions held by the framers that citizens of a democracy "required the freedom to speak freely and passionately on all the issues before them." While the early American revolutionaries revered their freedom of expression as part of their patriotic duty, the subsequent legal challenges severely undermined those early libertarian impulses. Solomon follows the First Amendment arguments to the present. A cogent, organized history of the beginnings of free speech in the United States.
