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Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (New Forum Books) Hardcover – April 10, 2018

by Keith E. Whittington (Author)

4.3 32 ratings

Part of: New Forum Books (22 books)

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Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (New Forum Books)
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Why free speech is the lifeblood of colleges and universities

Free speech is under attack at colleges and universities today, with critics on and off campus challenging the value of open inquiry and freewheeling intellectual debate. Too often speakers are shouted down, professors are threatened, and classes are disrupted. In Speak Freely, Keith Whittington argues that universities must protect and encourage free speech because vigorous free speech is the lifeblood of the university. Without free speech, a university cannot fulfill its most basic, fundamental, and essential purposes, including fostering freedom of thought, ideological diversity, and tolerance.

Examining such hot-button issues as trigger warnings, safe spaces, hate speech, disruptive protests, speaker disinvitations, the use of social media by faculty, and academic politics, Speak Freely describes the dangers of empowering campus censors to limit speech and enforce orthodoxy. It explains why free speech and civil discourse are at the heart of the university’s mission of creating and nurturing an open and diverse community dedicated to learning. It shows why universities must make space for voices from both the left and right. And it points out how better understanding why the university lives or dies by free speech can help guide everyone—including students, faculty, administrators, and alumni—when faced with difficult challenges such as unpopular, hateful, or dangerous speech.

Timely and vitally important, Speak Freely demonstrates why universities can succeed only by fostering more free speech, more free thought—and a greater tolerance for both.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Winner of the 2019 PROSE Award in Education (Practice and Theory), Association of American Publishers"

"Involve[s] readers in the pleasures of confronting a difficult problem, treating the dangerous views of determined adversaries with an open mind and proceeding with greater confidence as a result. This summer, Speak Freely will be distributed to every Princeton freshman for consideration and discussion. That’s a start."---Jonathan Marks, Wall Street Journal

"A fresh foray into the campus culture wars."---Robert Simpson, Times Literary Supplement

"A timely defense of intellectual debate and critical thinking. . . . In the current divisive political climate, Whittington shows why safeguarding the civil exchange of diverse ideas is an urgent need." ― Kirkus

"[A] sophisticated and coolheaded defense of free speech."---Peter Berkowitz, Real Clear Politics

"[Keith Whittington’s] book provides a cogent and compelling analysis of the ‘troubling currents swirling through college campuses'. . . . Speak Freely supplies clarity and good sense to a subject that has been receiving a lot more heat than light. . . . Mr. Whittington adds a timely plea to every American, inside and outside of the academy, to give more attention and support to the foundational principles of teaching and research."---Glenn C. Altschuler, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Keith E. Whittington has written the best of the recent books on free speech and higher education."---James Stoner, Law and Liberty

"This is an important and robust book." ― Paradigm Explorer

Review

"No other book so accessibly presents the fundamental principles of the free speech tradition and applies them to contemporary campus controversies—ranging from the heckling or disinviting of campus speakers to attempts to censure faculty for social media postings. A compelling defense of the university as an enclave of reason, Speak Freely is fresh, illuminating, galvanizing, and persuasive."—Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center and George Washington University Law School

"If John Stuart Mill were around today, this is the book he might write about the free speech crisis on college campuses. Keith Whittington drills deep beneath the law and the excesses of political correctness to explain why universities’ foremost mission is to make and spread knowledge, even at the cost of discomfort, offense, or pain. At a time when many universities have lost their way, Speak Freely exemplifies the clarity, civility, and compassion that they—and we—so badly need."—Jonathan Rauch, author of Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought

"Freedom of speech is crucial to the university and democracy. Keith Whittington provides a deep exploration of the reasons why—and carefully examines contemporary challenges on college campuses."—David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of The Libertarian Mind

"An astute, crucial reminder that free speech and a diversity of perspectives are necessary prerequisites for a vibrant intellectual life. Whittington’s persuasive case for both comes at a critical time for all members of the university community, as well as our larger society. Speak Freely is essential reading for everyone who is concerned about higher education and intellectual freedom."—Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship

"Speak Freely is a thoughtful and compelling account of how colleges and universities came to embrace the value of free expression as central to their mission, why they should remain faithful to that value in the face of current controversies, and how they should best approach and address these issues. Carefully reasoned, balanced, and persuasive, this book will be a valuable guide for anyone who wants to better understand what's at stake in today’s disputes over free speech on campus."—Geoffrey Stone,,University of Chicago Law School

From the Back Cover

"No other book so accessibly presents the fundamental principles of the free speech tradition and applies them to contemporary campus controversies--ranging from the heckling or disinviting of campus speakers to attempts to censure faculty for social media postings. A compelling defense of the university as an enclave of reason, Speak Freely is fresh, illuminating, galvanizing, and persuasive."--Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center and George Washington University Law School

"If John Stuart Mill were around today, this is the book he might write about the free speech crisis on college campuses. Keith Whittington drills deep beneath the law and the excesses of political correctness to explain why universities foremost mission is to make and spread knowledge, even at the cost of discomfort, offense, or pain. At a time when many universities have lost their way, Speak Freely exemplifies the clarity, civility, and compassion that they--and we--so badly need."--Jonathan Rauch, author of Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought

"Freedom of speech is crucial to the university and democracy. Keith Whittington provides a deep exploration of the reasons why--and carefully examines contemporary challenges on college campuses."--David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of The Libertarian Mind

"An astute, crucial reminder that free speech and a diversity of perspectives are necessary prerequisites for a vibrant intellectual life. Whittington s persuasive case for both comes at a critical time for all members of the university community, as well as our larger society. Speak Freely is essential reading for everyone who is concerned about higher education and intellectual freedom."--Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship

"Speak Freely is a thoughtful and compelling account of how colleges and universities came to embrace the value of free expression as central to their mission, why they should remain faithful to that value in the face of current controversies, and how they should best approach and address these issues. Carefully reasoned, balanced, and persuasive, this book will be a valuable guide for anyone who wants to better understand what's at stake in today s disputes over free speech on campus."--Geoffrey Stone,,University of Chicago Law School

About the Author

Keith E. Whittington is the David Boies Professor of Law at Yale Law School and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (April 10, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 232 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691181608
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691181608
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,683,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,256 in Censorship & Politics
- #1,817 in General Constitutional Law
- #2,318 in Philosophy & Social Aspects of Education

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4.3 32 ratings

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Keith E. Whittington

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Keith E. Whittington is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. His work on American constitutional law, theory and politics, federalism, judicial politics, and the presidency has been published widely in books, scholarly journals, and elsewhere. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and winner of the J. David Greenstone Award and the C. Herman Pritchett Award, among other honors. He served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, and he is the founding chair of the Academic Freedom Alliance.

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Wanda B. Red
Why Free Speech Matters on College Campuses
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018
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An excellent, pragmatic exploration of free speech on college campuses. Whittington is forceful without pushing his argument too far. He understands that protections against harmful speech are well intentioned--and in carefully circumscribed arenas may even have their place. And as he explains, most of what today's universities do is fully aligned with their mission of creating and advancing new knowledge. Opponents from outside the university sometimes unfairly exaggerate the threats to this mission.

But, as this book relentlessly and entirely reasonably makes clear, those threats are also real, and they do come from within the universities themselves, which have in recent years given up hard-won protections of free inquiry under pressure to protect their brands and avoid controversy. Authorities treated in this learned and lucid book range from John Stuart Mill to the most recent pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education. As a professor himself, Whittington is well positioned to understand the complexity of the issues that he covers. Key issues include: the role of outside speakers, the centrality of the classroom, the relationship of teaching and research, the history of tenure and speech protections at institutions of higher learning, the value of viewpoint diversity, and the difficulty of controlling repressive measures once they are in place.

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8 people found this helpful

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The Professor
Free Speech for Everybody, even Christian Believers
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2018
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The author argues the “core value of the modern American university … free inquiry, not indoctrination. It was in this environment that the idea of academic freedom emerged, for it was in this environment that the idea of academic freedom would have a purpose." And the core of the liberal tradition of free thought is “the liberty of religious conscience… The liberty of conscience was first and foremost a liberty to seek the truth… discovering the truth about religious obligation…. [and] dissenters of all types should be tolerated.” (pp 21; 36-37). This includes those who reject Dogmatic Darwinism.

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George/Princeton
Freshman pre-read at Princeton
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2018
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All incoming students at Princeton were required to read this book and discuss. It is an important contribution to the debate about the importance and the limits of various kinds of speech, especially in an academic environment, where free inquiry and argument are essential to the learning process. The author, Keith Whittington, is a distinguished professor of political theory and he tackles the hard issues head on. Well worth reading at any age.

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Susej
Nice
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2022
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Was so helpful for the school

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Scott Westcott
A must read!
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2020
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This was used for my research into free speech on America's university campus'. A great addition to my growing library on the subject.

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