Today we flesh out what "the freedom of speech" is all about, especially as described by the first amendment of the American Constitution, where it is somewhat ambiguously enshrined.

We discuss:

• The English origins of the "freedom of speech" (thanks largely to John Milton)
• The transformation of this freedom between 1918 and 1919 (thanks to Harold Lasky and Learned hand, via Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr)
• "Shouting 'Fire!' in a crowded theater," libel, and other challenges to absolutist free speech
• American "free speech" conceptualized as a spirit, rather than a law (understood through Joseph de Maistre)

Referenced resources:

• Christopher Hitchens on Hate Speech
• Clay Shirky and the Freedom to Share
• The Great Dissent by Thomas Healy
• Let the Students Speak! by David L Hudson

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