For more than 200 years, the freedom of speech - considered among American's most precious rights - has been guaranteed by the constitution. Yet the First Amendment as we know it is largely a post-1920s creation. This book reflects on the past, present and future of the First Amendment.

The result is a unique volume that reaches across the entire spectrum of First Amendment issues and offers a series of speculative essays that explore such diverse subjects as seditions libel, campaign regulation, commercial advertising, obscenity, and the new media.