There's No Such Thing as Free Speech: And It's a Good Thing Too

New
Paperback
1995
$20.20

In an era when much of what passes for debate is merely moral posturing - traditional family values versus the cultural elite, free speech versus censorship - the terms 'liberal' and 'politically correct', are used with as much dismissive scorn by the right as 'reactionary' and 'fascist' are by the left. In There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, Fish takes aim at the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. In his witty, accessible dissections of the swirling controversies over multiculturalism, affirmative action, canon revision, hate speech, and legal reform, he takes both the left and the right equally to task. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the outcome of America's cultural wars.

Synopsis

In an era when much of what passes for debate is merely moral posturing - traditional family values versus the cultural elite, free speech versus censorship - the terms 'liberal' and 'politically correct', are used with as much dismissive scorn by the right as 'reactionary' and 'fascist' are by the left. In There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, Fish takes aim at the ideological gridlock paralyzing academic and political exchange in the nineties. In his witty, accessible dissections of the swirling controversies over multiculturalism, affirmative action, canon revision, hate speech, and legal reform, he takes both the left and the right equally to task. This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the outcome of America's cultural wars.

$20.20

Quantity

10 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 348
Edition: Revised ed.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 30 Mar 1995
ISBN 10: 0195093836
ISBN 13: 9780195093834

Media Reviews

Mr Fish deflates anointed truths with joyful abandon, and he is at his best in exposing the often baleful effects wrought by mean-spirited defenders of traditional values * The New York Times Book Review *

Author Bio

Stanley Fish is Arts and Sciences Professor of English and Professor of Law at Duke University. A founder of Reader Response Theory, he is the author of many books, including Surprised by Sin, Self-Consuming Artifacts, Is There a Text in this Class?, and Doing What Comes Naturally.