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Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other Hardcover – October, 1992

by Nat Hentoff (Author)

16 customer reviews

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A state-of-the-constitution analysis of free speech today laments assaults on this fundamental privilege by the left and the right and passionately reaffirms the right of free expression. By the author of The New Equality. Tour.

Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hentoff's guiding principle in this casebook is that the First Amendment's protection of free speech must be given to all, even to those whose views are repugnant. It is not only right-wingers who have censored free expression, he argues, but anti-porn feminists, blacks who attempt to ban Huckleberry Finn from schools (because the novel includes the word nigger), gays who supported a blacklisting of Anita Bryant, and other enforcers of political correctness. Hentoff, a syndicated columnist and Village Voice regular, endorses American Nazis' right to march in Skokie, Ill., in 1977, arguing that hatred should be brought into the open and confronted with the truth. He supports flag-burners' First Amendment rights and opposes anti-bigotry speech codes on campuses, maintaining that politically correct" students and professors have stifled debate. He also criticizes the harsh limitations imposed on picketing anti-abortion groups. Hentoff's fierce consistency in this libertarian manifesto will draw the wrath of critics. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Some years ago, Clark Kerr, then president of the University of California, said: "The purpose of a university is to make students safe for ideas--not ideas safe for students." More recently, "thought police" operating on all levels of education and from all parts of the political spectrum have taken the opposite tack. In a thoughtful analysis of free expression, Hentoff indicts those from the right and the left who would suppress the rights of individuals to voice opposing viewpoints. He deals with traditional censors--religious fundamentalists and political right-wingers--but does not neglect the new ones, e.g., feminists who tried to prevent a pro-life women's group from participating in Yale University's Women's Center. He also takes on proponents of "hate speech" regulations as enemies of free expression. Long recognized as a crusading First Amendment purist, Hentoff has written extensively on the subject in newspaper and magazine columns and in such books as The First Freedom (Delacorte, 1988) and a YA novel, The Day They Came To Arrest the Book (Delacorte, 1982. o.p.). His new book belongs in all libraries.
- Sue Kimm, Inglewood P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

Hardcover: 405 pages
Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (October 1992)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006019006X
ISBN-13: 978-0060190064
Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
Average Customer Review: 16 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,220,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #462 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Censorship
- #1075 in Books > Law > Rules & Procedures > Civil Procedure

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Five Stars

Bythomas e.on June 22, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Quality book in fine condition delivered in a timely way. Thanks.

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Five Stars

ByLittle Aliceon March 25, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

A book everyone should read!

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Obscenity is not protected speech.

ByDeborah Khoraon July 27, 2014

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Excellent book. Almost a convert to porn as a form of free speech. However, Obscenity does NOT fall under the category of free and protected speech, and can, indeed, be censored. This is the greater feminist issue.

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Should be must reading

ByDoug ErlandsonTOP 100 REVIEWERon May 29, 2013

Format: Paperback

I first became familiar with Nat Hentoff in the mid-1990s when teaching a college-level class in applied ethics. One of the issues we covered was free speech. Having read other books by free speech advocates as well as the writings of those who try to justify censorship, I can safely say that Hentoff's "Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee" is the best volume on the issue, particularly because of the numerous real-life examples he provides. His book describes numerous occasions when speech has been censored by those on both ends of the political spectrum. As a person who leans Left, it is most interesting that more than half of his examples are taken from situations in which the political Left has censored the freedom of speech of those with whom they disagree. One of his most gripping stories is of his defense of the right of members of the American Nazi Party to hold a demonstration in the Chicago suburb of Skokie (a suburb with a heavily Jewish population, many of whom at the time were Holocaust survivors). The ANP had been denied a permit to march and had appealed to the courts. They had asked the ACLU to intervene on their behalf. The ACLU refused. To Hentoff, this smacked of hypocrisy, for it was obvious to him that the ACLU's advocacy of free speech was selective, something to which some people and groups were entitled, but not all. Hentoff (as well as other free speech advocates) left the ACLU as a result.

This is just one of many stories Hentoff tells. Anyone who desires to know more about how our civil liberties are being eroded, particularly our right to freedom of speech, should read Hentoff's book. While the examples are a little bit outdated, the principles remain. In this day and age, when those on both sides of the political spectrum try to stifle their opponents by denying them the right to an open forum, this book is must reading.

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The Precarious State of Free Speech

Bywarlordon August 8, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I had been reading Nat Hentoff's column on civil liberties in the Village Voice for years. He had a talent for examining situations and noting ramifications that most people ignored or never thought of. One might assume that Mr. Hentoff is a liberal. I believe he is not; he is a civil libertarian. There is a difference, and reading his works will show why. He condemns the hypocrisies of liberals as well as conservatives. He discusses the dangers of political correctness, and exposes the lack of free thinking in our colleges and universities. This is an important work, and everyone should read it.

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Both insightful and accessible

ByChristopher H. Hodgkinon May 18, 2007

Format: Paperback

This is one of the most important books of our time. Hentoff is a passionate believer in free speech who recognizes that if speech is truly to be free, he must protect the expression even of ideas he abhors. He catalogs with equal regret the efforts of both the right and the left to censor speech they don't like. While being sympathetic to those who object to allowing bigots, racists, pornographers, atheists, and others of many stripes the right to lay out ideas that one group or another finds repugnant, he makes both an intellectual and an emotional case for allowing everyone to have their say, no matter how much this may offend some. He points out that suppressing speech doesn't get rid of the underlying thought, but merely drives it underground and gives it the benefit of martyrdom. His corrective to bad speech is good speech: those who believe in their ideas should not try to censor other views, but should openly confront and refute them with opposing ideas.

His prescription can be hard to accept at times, but the case he makes is persuasive that in the end, liberty of speech is the best guarantee of a free society and of the ability for that society to work through the all viewpoints to reach agreement on which opinions are social desirable and which are not.

Democracy and freedom are hard masters, but they are worth it.

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Great book--very objective

ByAmazon Customeron May 20, 2001

Format: Hardcover

Hentoff deals with the subject of free speech in the most objective manner I've seen. As a writer for the Village Voice, he could not be accused of being a right-winger, so criticism of the hypocrisy of the left is very credible. I've always thought it ironic that the left portrays itself as having a lock on being open-minded, yet it is all too happy to restrict speech that presents a contrary point of view.
Hentoff gives many examples, including some of his own, where both sides of the political spectrum attempt to censor the speech of the other. He discusses everything from efforts on college campuses to prevent non politically correct subjects from being discussed to censorship he faced while writing his columns.
Great book for people to read on both sides of the political spectrum. Perhaps it could move more people on both sides to actually listen to opposing points of view rather than trying to prevent the discussion. We have to understand that the 1st Amendment was not designed to protect speech we agree with--their would be no need for such protection. Being offended is really not a constitutional reason to preclude speech (in my view as well as Hentoff's).