Summary

The introduction begins with the author describing an event in his family’s life. While on a cruise between the United States and England, the author’s son Dan tried to attend a showing of All the President’s Men, a film about the reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal. While the film was rated PG in the United States, it had a stricter rating in the United Kingdom and Dan, who was ten years old at the time, was not allowed to attend the showing. Dan left, grumbling that “that’s why we had a revolution. That’s why we have a First Amendment” (xiv).

This story demonstrates the uniqueness of the American First Amendment. While other countries provide for the freedom of speech, the American conception is far more expansive and intense, allowing speech that even other democracies prohibit, by limiting the...