Censorship is a casebook designed to help readers understand the complexities of censorship and expressive freedom in America during the past century. The cases and other materials presented in this volume reveal many of the high and low points in the continuing struggle between the promise of the First Amendment and the reality of intermittent censorship and government interference. By focusing on concrete cases and examples, the volume encourages students and other readers to explore the underlying conflicts of values that First Amendment and censorship controversies promote. Censorship is divided into four thematic units: -Freedom of Communication: The First Amendment and its Many Limitations -Schools and Freedom of Expression -The Arts and Censorship -Reputational Censorship: Beyond the First Amendment
Paul Von Blum is Senior Lecturer in African American Studies and Communication Studies at UCLA, where he has taught since 1980, after 11 years of faculty service at the University of California at Berkeley. He has received Distinguished Teaching Awards at both Berkeley and UCLA and teaches a course in Race, Racism and the Law. Trained originally as a lawyer at UC Berkeley, he has handled racial profiling and other public interest cases for 40 years. He is the author of six previous books and over 100 articles on art and cultural history, law, education, and politics.