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reading_to_write's reviews
177 reviews
The Short Life and Curious Death of Free Speech in America by Ellis Cose
3.0
I don’t usually read political books but I’m interested in all serious discussions and examinations around free speech and our changing communication norms in today’s society. The author does a good job of taking a historical and current view of the 1st amendment and the politics from which it sprang, and the factors leading to the stressors on it now. However, I felt as though the book/its writing may have been rushed, as though I was reading a series of newspaper columns arguing to a common point. I expected something deeper, something that really dug into the complexity of free speech vs restricting some parts. Ultimately I felt like It stayed too long in right/left politics and didn’t even begin to dig into this issue seriously enough to make anything like what the book proposes a serious consideration. I wondered several times if the book wasn’t rushed to publish before the election. I still found it insightful, a fast little read, an interesting thesis that’s worthwhile, and a few historical vignettes I didn’t know. I do believe the Founding Fathers would have called this a Pamphlet.... but ultimately there was nothing groundbreaking or earth shattering here- surprising given this author’s past books (and what’s leading me to think it was rushed to publication perhaps).