The Case against Free Speech

There's a critical debate taking place in this country over one of the most fundamental pillars of our democracy: free speech. But what few realize is that this debate is less a debate than a multi-decade war waged by the rich to redefine free speech, further a conservative agenda, and silence a progressive one.

THE CASE AGAINST FREE SPEECH takes readers into the battleground over this foundational concept, from the backrooms of think-tanks where the very definition of free speech is influenced by billionaires like the Koch Brothers; to "safe spaces" on college campuses; to neo-Nazi rallies protected by the police; and deep into the history of who benefits from free speech.

As Moskowitz shows, the rights associated with free speech have always been reserved primarily for those in power. THE CASE AGAINST FREE SPEECH offers a new politics of speech, one that takes into account power, equality, and all our civil liberties.

“"In The Case Against Free Speech P. E. Moskowitz offers a radical and necessary intervention. Exposing liberal myths with intellectual acuity, anti-fascist commitment, and dedicated reporting, Moskowitz demands we address what current free speech discourse ignores: power. I'm delighted that this book exists." -- Natasha Lennard , author of Being Numerous”

"A provocation for First Amendment absolutists, who may be surprised at all the hidden constraints that bind free expression."--Kirkus Reviews
"In The Case Against Free Speech P. E. Moskowitz offers a radical and necessary intervention. Exposing liberal myths with intellectual acuity, anti-fascist commitment, and dedicated reporting, Moskowitz demands we address what current free speech discourse ignores: power. I'm delighted that this book exists."--Natasha Lennard, author of Being Numerous
"In this incisive treatise, journalist Moskowitz (How to Kill a City) argues that the concept of free speech has been distorted as a cover for maintaining existing systems of power... The analysis here is keen, complex, and well-organized."--Publishers Weekly
"Moskowitz has posed a pretty vital question: How can you speak freely when you don't know what you're talking about in the first place?"
--The New Republic
"Moskowitz's provocative and deeply insightful exploration of free speech politics exposes the current controversy over free speech as a manufactured crisis that obscures deeper fault lines in our democracy. Despite its title, The Case Against Free Speech is less an indictment of speech than a call to reimagine freedom."--Laura Weinrib, author of The Taming of Free Speech: America's Civil Liberties Compromise and law professor at the University of Chicago
"When Moskowitz arrived in Charlottesville, they were expecting a free speech rally, but by the end of the day Heather Heyer lay dead, run down by a neo-Nazi. This was never simply about speech, and if we have learned anything, it's that white supremacy and fascism are not ideas to be debated but movements to be destroyed. Moskowitz surgically dissects America's free speech fetish, drawing speech into conversation with action and violence-not as ideas but as material realities. The Case Against Free Speech is the book we need for 2019 and beyond."--George Ciccariello-Maher, author of Building the Commune

P. E. Moskowitz is the author of How to Kill a City, and a freelance journalist who has covered a wide variety of issues, from environmental disasters to the vestiges of racist urban planning. A former staff writer for Al Jazeera America, they have written for the Guardian, New York Times, NewYorker.com, New Republic, Wired, Slate, Buzzfeed, Splinter, VICE, and many others. A graduate of Hampshire College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, they live in Philadelphia.

There's a critical debate taking place in this country over one of the most fundamental pillars of our democracy: free speech. But what few realize is that this debate is less a debate than a multi-decade war waged by the rich to redefine free speech, further a conservative agenda, and silence a progressive one. THE CASE AGAINST FREE SPEECH takes readers into the battleground over this foundational concept, from the backrooms of think-tanks where the very definition of free speech is influenced by billionaires like the Koch Brothers; to "safe spaces" on college campuses; to neo-Nazi rallies protected by the police; and deep into the history of who benefits from free speech.As Moskowitz shows, the rights associated with free speech have always been reserved primarily for those in power. THE CASE AGAINST FREE SPEECH offers a new politics of speech, one that takes into account power, equality, and all our civil liberties.

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