[I]n order to understand free speech, we must understand free speech in wartime.
Theodore F.T. Plucknett 1
One mark of a great book is its ability to make its readers think.
Through a combination of insight, research, and analysis, great books lead the mind into fields of thought where new seeds of ideas may be planted. By that measure, Geoffrey Stone's Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime stands to be considered a great book. In time, it may well take its place on the mantel with other great works - one thinks of Chafee's Free Speech in the United States2, Emerson's The System of Freedom of Expression3, and Levy's Emergence of a Free Press4. Such books inspire their readers to reflect on the historical lessons of free speech and the directions for its future.
Most certainly, many of the thoughts that follow were influenced by Professor Stone's new book. This Article is our way of acknowledging our debt to him, in that he is one of those writers who have provoked us to think differently about free speech in America and to add novel dimensions to accepted ideas about freedom. Whether our ideas do justice to Stone's book is for others to decide. Meanwhile, let us begin to plant a few seeds of our own.
