LibGuides: Intellectual, Academic, and Expressive Freedoms at the University of Wyoming: Freedom of Speech

Borrowing Items from UW Libraries

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Access to all University Libraries materials; borrowing of all circulating University Libraries items
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Access to electronic subscriptions and databases
Prospector access is limited to on campus patrons. UW distance and outreach patrons may request materials from other libraries via Interlibrary Loan.

All current citizens of Wyoming can access a number of library databases through the Wyoming State Library's WYLD website. Users must have a current Wyoming public library card in order to use WYLD resources.

On-site free access to most of UW Libraries' electronic resources, such as databases and electronic journals, is available from public access terminals in Coe Library.

Community and courtesy library cards are available by request at any library Help Desk and provide borrowing privileges (excluding Prospector or Request It services) to:

Wyoming residents and spouses/dependents of University of Wyoming affiliates with a Wyoming driver's license, state ID card, WyoOne campus ID card, or government-issued photo ID and proof of residency. Residents under 18 years of age must have a signed parental permission form (PDF) on file. Registration must be updated annually.
Non-Wyoming residents with a driver's license, state ID card, or government-issued photo ID. A $20 account registration fee is assessed annually.
Campus workshop participants with authorization from the workshop coordinator, a parent/legal guardian permission form if under 18, and a photo ID. Registration is limited to the term of the workshop.

Books

Books listed without a call number are only available as eBooks. The eBooks listed here are only available to UW students and employees. Many of books and ebooks are available at public libraries in Wyoming.

Areopagitica by John Milton
Call Number: K3255 .M54 1971
Publication Date: 1644
"Areopagitica" is not just a historical document but has had a lasting impact on discussions about freedom of speech and the role of censorship. It is often cited in legal and philosophical debates about these issues and remains a foundational text in the study of civil liberties and freedom of the press. The work's enduring influence is a testament to its persuasive power and the depth of its ideas.
Defending My Enemy by Aryeh Neier
Call Number: KF 4772 .N43
ISBN: 9781617700453
Publication Date: 2012-08-01
Are Nazis entitled to freedom of expression? In 1977, Frank Collin, leader of the National Socialist Party of America, sought to hold a Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois. Skokie had one of the largest Holocaust survivor populations outside New York City. Writing from his perspective as national executive director of the ACLU, the author details what happened next.
Free Speech by Jacob Mchangama
Call Number: JC591 .M33 2022
ISBN: 9781541600492
Publication Date: 2022-02-08
"The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made." --P.J. O'Rourke Hailed as the "first freedom," free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat. In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders--from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Rāzī, to the anti-lynching crusader Ida B. Wells and modern-day digital activists--Mchangama reveals how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech, too, is a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all stripes. Meticulously researched and deeply humane, Free Speech demonstrates how much we have gained from this principle--and how much we stand to lose without it.
Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee by Nat Hentoff
Call Number: KF4772 .H46 1992
ISBN: 9780060190064
Publication Date: 1992-11-01
An eye-opening look at the clash between censorship and free speech that shows how both the right and the left try to suppress the opinions of those who disagree with them, by journalist Nat Hentoff--widely recognized as one of the foremost lay authorities on civil rights and liberties.
Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, 1870-1920 by David M. Rabban; Christopher L. Tomlins (Contribution by)
Call Number: KF4772 .R33 1997
ISBN: 0521620139
Publication Date: 1997-10-13
Freedom of speech is a central tenet of the American way of life that is tested and fought over seemingly every day. Curiously, people who follow and study free speech issues assume that controversies and litigation about free speech began abruptly during World War I. The surprising research in this original book reveals that this conventional view is incorrect, and that the previously unknown history of free speech between the Civil War and World War I is rich and varied. For instance, the author shows that important free speech controversies, often involving the activities of sex reformers and labor unions, preceded the Espionage Act of 1917. A significant organization, the Free Speech League, became a principled defender of free expression two decades before the establishment of the ACLU in 1920. Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years uncovers a major episode in the history of American liberal thought. Furthermore, it sheds light on key current debates about "rights talk" and about the complicated historical enterprise of studying ideas over time. It should be of interest to people who follow free speech and civil liberties issues as well as people involved in women's and labor history.
Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky; Howard Gillman
Call Number: KF4772 .C54 2017
ISBN: 9780300226560
Publication Date: 2017-09-12
Can free speech coexist with an inclusive campus environment? "An urgent and indispensable roadmap to guide us through one of the most divisive periods in American history."--Stephen Rohde, Los Angeles Review of Books Hardly a week goes by without another controversy over free speech on college campuses. On one side, there are increased demands to censor hateful, disrespectful, and bullying expression and to ensure an inclusive and nondiscriminatory learning environment. On the other side are traditional free speech advocates who charge that recent demands for censorship coddle students and threaten free inquiry. In this clear and carefully reasoned book, a university chancellor and a law school dean--both constitutional scholars who teach a course in free speech to undergraduates--argue that campuses must provide supportive learning environments for an increasingly diverse student body but can never restrict the expression of ideas. This book provides the background necessary to understanding the importance of free speech on campus and offers clear prescriptions for what colleges can and can't do when dealing with free speech controversies.
Free Speech on Campus by Sigal R. Ben-Porath
Call Number: LC72.2 .B46 2017
ISBN: 9780812250077
Publication Date: 2017-08-25
From the University of California, Berkeley, to Middlebury College, institutions of higher learning increasingly find themselves on the front lines of cultural and political battles over free speech. Repeatedly, students, faculty, administrators, and politically polarizing invited guests square off against one another, assuming contrary positions on the limits of thought and expression, respect for differences, the boundaries of toleration, and protection from harm. In Free Speech on Campus, political philosopher Sigal Ben-Porath examines the current state of the arguments, using real-world examples to explore the contexts in which conflicts erupt, as well as to assess the place of identity politics and concern with safety and dignity within them. She offers a useful framework for thinking about free-speech controversies both inside and outside the college classroom, shifting the focus away from disputes about legality and harm and toward democracy and inclusion. Ben-Porath provides readers with strategies to de-escalate tensions and negotiate highly charged debates surrounding trigger warnings, safe spaces, and speech that verges on hate. Everyone with a stake in campus controversies--professors, students, administrators, and informed members of the wider public--will find something valuable in Ben-Porath's illuminating discussion of these crucially important issues.
The Free Speech Wars by Charlotte Lydia Riley (Editor)
ISBN: 9781526151162
Publication Date: 2020-11-20
Who gets to exercise free speech, and what happens when powerful voices think they have been silenced? Assembling a diverse group of commentators, activists and academics, this book explores the contemporary free speech wars to try to understand how this issue has become increasingly charged. It asks how the spaces and structures of 'speech' - mass media, the lecture theatre, the public event, the political rally and the internet - shape this debate. The contributors examine how acts such as censorship, boycotts, and protests around free speech developed historically and how these histories inform the present. The book explores the opposing sides in this debate: beginning with a defence of speech freedoms and examining how speech has been curbed and controlled, before countering this with an exploration of the way that free speech has been weaponised and deployed as a bad faith argument by people wishing to commit harm. Considering two key battlefields in the free speech wars - the university campus and the internet - this book encourages the reader to be suspicious of the way that this topic is framed in the media today. The free speech wars offers context, provocation, stimulation and - hopefully - a route through this conflict.
The Great Dissent by Thomas Healy
Call Number: KF224.A34 H43 2013
ISBN: 9780805094565
Publication Date: 2013-08-20
A gripping intellectual history reveals how Oliver Wendell Holmes became a free-speech advocate and established the modern understanding of the First Amendment No right seems more fundamental to American public life than freedom of speech. Yet well into the twentieth century, that freedom was still an unfulfilled promise, with Americans regularly imprisoned merely for speaking out against government policies. Indeed, free speech as we know it comes less from the First Constitutional Amendment than from a most unexpected source: Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. A lifelong skeptic, he disdained all individual rights, including the right to express one's political views. But in 1919, it was Holmes who wrote a dissenting opinion that would become the canonical affirmation of free speech in the United States. Why did Holmes change his mind? That question has puzzled historians for almost a century. Now, with the aid of newly discovered letters and confidential memos, law professor Thomas Healy reconstructs in vivid detail Holmes's journey from free-speech opponent to First Amendment hero. It is the story of a remarkable behind-the-scenes campaign by a group of progressives to bring a legal icon around to their way of thinking--and a deeply touching human narrative of an old man saved from loneliness and despair by a few unlikely young friends. Beautifully written and exhaustively researched,The Great Dissent is intellectual history at its best, revealing how free debate can alter the life of a man and the legal landscape of an entire nation. AKirkus ReviewsBest Nonfiction Book of 2013
Hate by Nadine Strossen
ISBN: 9780190859138
Publication Date: 2018-05-01
The updated paperback edition of HATE dispels misunderstandings plaguing our perennial debates about "hate speech vs. free speech," showing that the First Amendment approach promotes free speech and democracy, equality, and societal harmony. As "hate speech" has no generally accepted definition, we hear many incorrect assumptions that it is either absolutely unprotected or absolutely protected from censorship. Rather, U.S. law allows government to punish hateful or discriminatory speech in specific contexts when it directly causes imminent serious harm. Yet, government may not punish such speech solely because its message is disfavored, disturbing, or vaguely feared to possibly contribute to some future harm. "Hate speech" censorship proponents stress the potential harms such speech might further: discrimination, violence, and psychic injuries. However, there has been little analysis of whether censorship effectively counters the feared injuries. Citing evidence from many countries, this book shows that "hate speech" are at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. Therefore, prominent social justice advocates worldwide maintain that the best way to resist hate and promote equality is not censorship, but rather, vigorous "counterspeech" and activism.
Kindly Inquisitors by Jonathan Rauch
Call Number: Z658.U5 R38 1993
ISBN: 0226705757
Publication Date: 1993-04-01
Tracing attacks on free speech from Plato's Republic to America's campuses and newsrooms, Jonathan Rauch provides an engaging and provocative attack on those who would limit free thought by restricting free speech. Rauch explores how the system for producing knowledge works in a liberal society, and why it has now become the object of a powerful ideological attack. Moving beyond the First Amendment, he defends the morality, rather than the legality, of an intellectual regime that relies on unfettered and often hurtful criticism. Kindly Inquisitors is a refreshing and vibrant essay, casting a provocative light on the raging debates over political correctness and multiculturalism. "Fiercely argued. . . . What sets his study apart is his attempt to situate recent developments in a long-range historical perspective and to defend the system of free intellectual inquiry as a socially productive method of channeling prejudice."--Michiko Kakutani, New York Times "Like no other, this book restates the core of our freedom and demonstrates how great, and disregarded, the peril to that freedom has become."--Joseph Coates, Chicago Tribune "The philosophical defense of free speech and free thought that seems to have been forgotten. . . . A powerful argument."--Diane Ravitch, Wall Street Journal
The Tyranny of Silence by Flemming Rose
Call Number: JC591 .R67 2014
ISBN: 9781939709424
Publication Date: 2014-11-14
When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (Viby, Denmark) published the cartoons of the prophet Mohammed nine years ago, Denmark found itself at the center of a global battle about the freedom of speech. The paper's culture editor, Flemming Rose, defended the decision to print the 12 drawings, and he quickly came to play a central part in the debate about the limitations to freedom of speech in the 21st century. Since then, Rose has visited universities and think tanks and participated in conferences and debates around the globe in order to discuss tolerance and freedom. In The Tyranny of Silence, Flemming Rose writes about the people and experiences that have influenced the way he views the world and his understanding of the crisis, including meetings with dissidents from the former Soviet Union and ex-Muslims living in Europe. He provides a personal account of an event that has shaped the debate about what it means to be a citizen in a democracy and how to coexist in a world that is increasingly multicultural, multireligious, and multiethnic.

New Publications - Freedom of Speech

Access to the articles linked below is restricted to University of Wyoming students and employees. Access may be available to Wyoming residents through the WYLD Network's Academic Search Premier subscription.

Open Access Essays, Reports, & Scholarship

Intellectual Freedom and Freedom of Speech: Three Theoretical Perspectives Freedom of speech encompasses not only a right to express oneself but also a right to access information. This right is particularly pertinent to libraries, whose mission is often focused on enabling and expanding access to information. Libraries can support this activity with a theoretical background that draws upon the three predominant jurisprudential theories of freedom of speech: the marketplace of ideas, democratic ideals, and individual autonomy. In this article, each of these theories is explained and then applied to the library context, creating a starting place for further investigation and application of these judicial theories to information access.
Subjective Freedom of Speech: Why Do Citizens Think They Cannot Speak Freely? We provide the first systematic research into the origins of subjective freedom of speech in Germany. Relying on the GLES 2021 Cross-Section Pre-Election Survey, which includes a newly designed survey item on subjective freedom of speech, we evaluate a whole range of plausible candidate hypotheses. First, we contribute to cumulative research by testing the explanatory factors in Gibson (1993)—citizens’ social class, their political involvement and political preferences, and their personality dispositions—for the German case. Second, we move beyond the state of the art and test three new hypotheses that reflect more recent political developments and arguments in the free speech debate: the role of social media, increasing political and social polarization, and the rise of populism. Importantly, all hypothesis tests reported in this paper have been preregistered prior to data collection. Our results reveal that three explanatory factors are significantly, consistently, and substantively related to subjective free speech in Germany: political preferences, populist attitudes, and identification with the Alternative for Germany party.
Communication as a Moral Vocation: Safe Space and Freedom of Speech. The Sociological Review The use of safe spaces in universities has become increasingly controversial over the last few years. Safe spaces are set up to offer an environment in which marginalised identities and hidden experiences can be given a voice, allowing for acceptance and affirmation. Their critics charge that they are at odds with the university as a site of debate; that their use has a chilling effect on free speech; and even that safe spaces are harmful to liberal democratic society itself. This article draws on social and cultural theory in order to counter these attacks on safe spaces. Working with Max Weber, Judith Butler and Emmanuel Levinas, the first section introduces the idea of communication as a moral vocation, calling for greater recognition of the need to balance the universal (freedom of speech) with a responsibility to hear voices that are not already amplified. Building on this, and drawing additionally on Jacques Derrida and Sara Ahmed, the second section introduces the idea of debate fetishism, which serves to negate the moral function of communication, naturalize the dominance of privileged voices, and neutralise the struggles of the struggling to be heard. It is concluded that safe spaces pose no threat to freedom of speech but that the stigmatization of their use acts to further disadvantage underrepresented identities.
Disliked but Free to Speak: Cognitive Ability Is Related to Supporting Freedom of Speech for Groups Across the Ideological Spectrum Freedom of speech for all citizens is often considered as a cornerstone of democratic societies. In three studies, we examined the relationship between cognitive ability and support for freedom of speech for a variety of social groups across the ideological spectrum (N 1 varies between 1,373 and 18,719, N 2 = 298, N 3 = 395). Corroborating our theoretical expectations, although cognitive ability was related to more affective prejudice toward relatively conservative groups and less affective prejudice toward relatively liberal groups (Study 2), people with higher levels of cognitive ability were more in favor of freedom of speech for all target groups (Studies 1–3). The relationship between cognitive ability and freedom of speech support was mediated by intellectual humility (preregistered Study 3). These results indicate that cognitive ability contributes to support for the democratic right of freedom of speech for all social–ideological groups.

Intellectual, Academic, and Expressive Freedoms at the University of Wyoming: Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Speech Defined

Borrowing Items from UW Libraries

Check it Out at Your Library

Books

New Publications - Freedom of Speech

Open Access Essays, Reports, & Scholarship

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