The President's Series: Does America have a "Free Speech" Problem?

Name: The President's Series: Does America have a "Free Speech" Problem?
Start: 2023-11-07T19:00:00-05:00
End: 2023-11-07T20:00:00-05:00
Location: Darien Library

Program Type:

Lecture

Age Group:

Adults

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Event Details

Does America have a “Free Speech Problem” – a disposition for “social silencing” -- as the NY Times recently wondered? Are we in the throes of “de-pluralizing” contemporary American society, where “canceling” those who disagree with us is simply the way we conduct our business? Have we lost sight of the importance of a free and open marketplace of ideas?

This program will explore the evolution of the right to free expression in the United States, from the Founders’ belief that liberty lay at the cornerstone of a free society, through the twentieth century where its standing waxed and waned, to the current moment where book banning and the “revisiting” of America’s brutal past are commonplace. We’ll examine the words and meaning of the Bill of Rights, the implications and consequences of legal decisions, and the possibilities and hopes for a freer future.

About the Presenter

Beau Breslin is the Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Professor of Government at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. He holds a Ph.D. in constitutional theory/American politics from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Hobart College. He has written extensively on the U.S. Constitution, the right to free expression, and the death penalty. His latest book, A Constitution for the Living: Imaging How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation’s Fundamental Law (Stanford University Press, 2021), has won several awards.

He is currently working on a monograph that considers what was lost when critical sections of America’s Founding-era documents (the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and so on) were edited and redacted because of political sensitivities.