Governing Australia

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Nat Hentoff

For years now, Nat Hentoff has been the best-known lay guardian of the magnificent spirit and letter of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. His principled advocacy of free expression for all seems to be needed more than ever today, at a time of appalling assaults on expression not only by traditional opponents on the political right - those offended by what they consider obscene or radical or otherwise taboo - but also from the left - radical feminists calling for the suppression of pornography, members of minorities banning language they consider psychologically damaging, and various other proponents of so-called political correctness. These more recently minted censors are now to be found within such former bastions of free speech as the universities and even the American Civil Liberties Union. This urgently important book is not a mere collection of legal cases; neither is it a history of free expression or a polemic from either left or right. It is rather a wide-ranging report on - and analysis of - the many kinds of conflicts throughout our country between the illusion that this is a land of unfettered free speech and the reality when that illusion is acted upon. It is a book of many stories - of the continuing efforts to deprive students of Mark Twain's masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn, and of attempts to deprive other students of the right not to read books that offend them; of the well-intentioned rulings that result in speech codes and loyalty oaths; of the wide-spread lack of understanding, over the years, of such basic concepts as the marketplace of ideas and of the overriding value of untrammeled speech. Free Speech for Me - But Not for Thee is a book about fear, duplicity, some courage, a lot of hypocrisy, and a good deal of irony. It is a book of dramatic confrontations, of people acting, for better or for worse, on one of the most important of our domestic battlefields. And above all, it presents hopeful, practical suggestions for ways toward saving perhaps the most fragile of our cherished freedoms.

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George B.N. Ayittey

"Despite billions of dollars of aid and the best efforts of the international community to improve economies and bolster democracy across Africa, violent dictatorships persist. As a result, millions have died, economies are in shambles, and whole states are on the brink of collapse. Political observers and policymakers are starting to believe that economic aid is not the key to saving Africa. So what does the continent need to do to throw off the shackles of militant rule? African policy expert George Ayittey argues that before Africa can prosper, she must be free. Taking a hard look at the fight against dictatorships around the world, from Ukraine's orange revolution in 2004 to Iran's Green Revolution last year, he examines what strategies worked in the struggle to establish democracy through revolution. Ayittey also offers strategies for the West to help Africa in her quest for freedom, including smarter sanctions and establishing fellowships for African students. "--

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Paul Preston

*The Spanish Civil War* vividly reconstructs in words and pictures —many never before seen outside Spain— the struggles of the war as well as discussing the wide implications of the revolution in the Republican zone, the emergence of a brutal dictatorship on the nationalist side and the extent to which the Spanish war was a dress rehearsal for the Second World War to come.

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Paul A. Beckett and Crawford Young

Through essays by 19 leading political analysts of Nigeria, this book offers an innovative, multidisciplinary study of the historical, social, and economic roots of both the effort and failure to create democracy in Nigeria. Two major episodes of transition to democracy (both ultimately unsuccessful) are studied in detail, as are the ingenious provisions of Nigeria's three democratic constitutions. New interpretations of the pattern of regional and ethnic interaction and conflict are developed, as is a fascinating view of the inter-relation between military rule and resurgent religious strife. The outlooks - for democracy, internal peace, and continued national existence - are assessed.