Emergence of a Free Press

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for press scholars
Review: This book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the history of the First Amendment. Levy is the starting point for debate on what freedom of the press meant to the framers of the first amendment. Levy contends that the framers had a very limited conception of freedom of the press, and presents a wealth of evidence of suppression of press freedoms in colonial America. There is a wealth of interesting information in this book, although it is not casual reading by any stretch of the imagination. Moreover, many scholars have criticized Levy for ignoring both the actual practices of colonial printers--who behaved as if they were quite free despite the law--and for ignoring the philosophical contributions of English Whig thinkers to the American conception of press freedom. In my view, you have to start with Levy if you are interested in this topic, but you shouldn't stop with him.