This concise volume is organized around 10 claims that proponents of speech restrictions regularly assert, such as: "words are violence," "free speech is right-wing," and "hate speech isn't free speech." In lively, clear, and persuasive prose, the authors examine the flaws in these pro-censorship assertions. The book also includes an insightful introduction by Jacob Mchangama, shedding additional light on the topic from historical and international perspectives.
Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and was the national President of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008. With more than 40 years of experience in First Amendment law, Strossen is a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. She is a Senior Fellow at FIRE and serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, and National Coalition Against Censorship. Strossen is the author of several books, including HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know(R) (2023). Her many honorary degrees and awards include the American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award (2017), and in 2023, the National Coalition Against Censorship selected Strossen for its Lifetime Achievement Award for Free Speech.
Jacob Mchangama is a Senior Fellow at FIRE, the Founder and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, and a research professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his work on free speech and human rights and has commented extensively on these topics in outlets including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed book Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.
"In a time of rising polarization, The War On Words is a vital reminder that free speech protects democracy itself. Lukianoff and Strossen make a compelling, principled, and timely case."
-- Ro Khanna, U.S. Representative (D-CA) and author of Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us
"Nadine Strossen and Greg Lukianoff are two of the fiercest defenders of free speech and the First Amendment alive today. The War On Words is a must read for anybody who cares about freedom of speech."
-- Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation
"Freedom of speech is sorely in need of special protection these days, and this book guides any reader to support it in clear, forthright, and powerful fashion."
-- Floyd Abrams, author of The Soul of the First Amendment