Truth, Autonomy, and Speech

Reviews / Votes

[William's] theory is elegant in its explication and provocative in its implications for government restrictions on speech ranging from the hateful, the symbolic, the politically subversive, and the costly. A must read. (Choice,A 2005 Choice Outstanding Academic Title) In this important book, Williams uses feminist theory not to challenge the idea of free speech but instead to reconstruct it. . . . What emerges from this well-written work of careful scholarship is an important contribution to the free speech literature. - Frederick Schauer,John F. Kennedy School of Government Susan Williams' searching and powerful attack on the traditional justifications for freedom of speech is itself an important contribution to the literature. But the reconstruction of those justifications is a tour de force. . . . Philosophical rigor, accessible writing, creativity, and good judgment all stand out in this terrific book on the First Amendment. - Steven Shiffrin,Cornell University Law School There just isn't any feminist treatment of speech or of the First Amendment that is this ambitious, either philosophically or legally. It is a remarkably original theoretical approach to and defense of the First Amendment. - Robin West,Georgetown University Law Center Meticulously argued and clearly organized, her account of free speech is both fundamentally feminist and optimistic. (The Law and Politics Book Review)