Wiesław Wacławczyk

“Unlike freedom of speech, freedom of thought seems to be a natural attribute of humans. After all, thoughts are, by contrast to words, both inaudible and invisible – and therefore they appear to be beyond the grasp of censors. […] In fact, the conviction that thoughts are really free is deeply rooted in different languages. For example, the famous Latin maxim Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur appears...

This book is devoted to a number of Americans who distinguished themselves in promulgating the idea of free speech in the 20th century. Most of these people were jurists: justices of the US Supreme Court and professors of law, therefore it is the representatives of these two groups who are given special attention here. However, the text also discusses the contribution of people representing other professions,...