This is a paperback reprint of an OUP/USA hardcover published in September 1989. To date the predominant rationale for freedom of speech has been the "marketplace of ideas" theory, which holds that the truth will be discovered only through debate free from government interference. In Human Liberty and Freedom of Speech, Baker critiques the assumptions underlying the various versions of this theory and develops a liberty theory which, he argues, has deep roots in Supreme Court decisions and our political history. Baker contends that a liberty theory is more philosophically sound, more interpretatively persuasive and more protective of speech than the judically and intellectual dominant market place of ideas theory.
Baker here evaluates the prevalent justifications for freedom of speech and formulates a liberty theory, which he applies to contemporary free speech cases as a means of suggesting possible reforms to free speech doctrine.
On every problem he discusses, Baker illuminates facets previously undisclosed ... This book [provides] an endless array of first amendment topics, presented with greater clarity than one expects in an academic work.
