Present Dangers: Rediscovering the First Amendment

Lowenthal Ph.D, David

ISBN 10: 1890626473 / ISBN 13: 9781890626471

Published by Spence Publishing Company, 2009

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Present Dangers: Rediscovering the First Amendment
• Publisher: Spence Publishing Company
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1890626473
• ISBN 13: 9781890626471
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

The hottest points of contention in American politics all spring from a single misunderstood sentence—the First Amendment. In a timely and iconoclastic reassessment of the cornerstone of American liberty, David Lowenthal reaches unorthodox yet compelling conclusions about free speech and religion under the Constitution. Revisiting the internal logic of the Amendment’s language and the legal culture from which it emerged, he shows how the courts have twisted it beyond recognition, exposing the nation to moral and cultural upheaval as well as physical violence.

Can we fight terrorism without destroying our freedom?
Is censorship of child pornography un-American?
Is the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional?

Professor Lowenthal examines the modern Supreme Court’s treatment of subversive groups, obscenity, and church-state questions, showing how in each area the Court has been led astray by its fixation on individual rights at the expense of the security and health of the republic.

Present Dangers opens with a foreword by Prof. Harvey C. Mansfield of Harvard University. A useful glossary of cases provides brief descriptions of over three dozen Supreme Court decisions cited in the text.

About the Author

DAVID LOWENTHAL, a native of Brooklyn, New York, is professor emeritus of political science at Boston College. He holds undergraduate degrees from Brooklyn College and New York University and a Ph.D. from the New School for Social Research, where he studied under Leo Strauss. He lives in Princeton, Massachusetts.