The Great Dissent : How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind--And Changed the History of Free Speech in America

from walbat

Healy's "The Great Dissent" wins the trifecta of historical writing: fascinating topic, solid research, and good writing. Like Louis Menand's "The Metaphysical Club," this is a "story of ideas in America" but with a specific focus on an issue of profound importance in American life: free speech. ...

from iReadby

Would have given it a 5-star review but for the painstaking laborious legal contexts and historical references for which a layperson like myself found difficult to muddle through. However, the author creates such suspense and excitement of the rebirth and ultimate redefinition of First Amendment ...

from skid0612

A gripping history that reveals how and why Holmes did an intellectual about face and became a free-speech advocate, changing the path of arguments before the court in the process.

from Maya47Bob46

When I began this book, I didn't know much about Oliver Wendell Holmes. I knew he was a "junior", his father a well known doctor. I knew he was from Boston. And I knew he was on the Supreme Court. That's about it. The Great Dissent begins late in Holmes' life. At the time, he was known for the sp...

from nbmars

This is a very thought-provoking account of how Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes altered his position on freedom of speech to pave the way for the more liberal interpretation of the First Amendment we now regard as canonical. In the short period between his decisions in Schenck v. Unit...