Description

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When members of the founding generation protested against British authority, debated separation, and then ratified the Constitution, they formed the American political character we know today-raucous, intemperate, and often mean-spirited. Revolutionary Dissent brings alive a world of colorful and stormy protests that included effigies, pamphlets, songs, sermons, cartoons, letters and liberty trees. Solomon explores through a series of chronological narratives how Americans of the Revolutionary period employed robust speech against the British and against each other. Uninhibited dissent provided a distinctly American meaning to the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech and press at a time when the legal doctrine inherited from England allowed prosecutions of those who criticized government.

Solomon discovers the wellspring in our revolutionary past for today's satirists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann, and protests like flag burning and street demonstrations. From the inflammatory engravings of Paul Revere, the political theater of Alexander McDougall, the liberty tree protests of Ebenezer McIntosh and the oratory of Patrick Henry, Solomon shares the stories of the dissenters who created the American idea of the liberty of thought. This is truly a revelatory work on the history of free expression in America.

About the Author

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STEPHEN D. SOLOMON is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, he teaches First Amendment law to graduate and undergraduate students. He has written for numerous national publications including The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, and The New Republic, and has been recognized with the Gerald Loeb Award and the Hillman Prize. His last book, Ellery's Protest, told the story of the Supreme Court's controversial decision forbidding state-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools.

Praise For…

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"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