Look inside this book

(+) Larger View

i, ii, iii, iv, v, vii, viii, ix, xi, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 29, 56, 79, 101, 130, 153, 178, 207, 235, 258, 269, 273, 341, 359

• Law of Libel and Slander
• Libel and Slander
• Legal History

• Learn about Questia
• Subscribe Now

Protecting the Best Men: An Interpretive History of the Law of Libel

by Norman L. Rosenberg. 369 pgs.

Contributors:

   Norman L. Rosenberg

Publisher:

   University of North Carolina Press

Place of Publication:

  Chapel Hill, NC  

Publication Year:

  1986

Subjects:

Libel And Slander--United States--History

	Contents
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction. Toward an Understanding of Defamation Law	3
	The "New" Legal Histories	6
1.	The Politics of Reputation in Seventeenth-Century America	12
	Free Expression in Colonial America: The Scholarly Debate	12
	The Dynamics of Political Expression in Seventeenth- Century America	15
	The Politics--Large and Small--of Reputation	19
	From Defamation to Political Libel	25
2.	Publishers Beware! Libel Law in Eighteenth-Century America	29
	The "Peculiar Unhappiness" of Colonial Printers	30
	Factional Politics and Seditious Libel, 1700-1750	33
	The Limits on Political Communication in Eighteenth- Century America	40
	Political Communication and Seditious Libel during the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1776	44
	Freedom of Expression during the American Revolution	51
	Political Libel in Eighteenth-Century America	53
3.	Framing an American Law of Libel, 1781-1797	56
	The System of Political Communication in Post- Revolutionary America	56
	Libel and Politics during the 1780s: The State Background of the First Amendment	61
	Toward the Sedition Act: Political Debate during the 1790s	71
4.	The Era of the Sedition Act and First-Amendment Thought	79
	The Sedition Act of 1798	79
	A Firmness of Faith: Federalists and the Law of Libel	82
	The "New Libertarianism": The Jeffersonian Response	89
	The Era of the Sedition Act and First-Amendment Thought	99
5.	The Law of Libel and Early Nineteenth-Century Political Culture	101
	The Law of Libel and Partisan Politics	101
	The Law of Criminal Libel, 1800-1815	108
	Criminal Libel and Politics, 1815-1827	117
	Politics and Civil Libel Suits, 1800-1830	120
	The Law of Libel and Early Nineteenth-Century Political Culture	128
6.	The Law of Libel in the Age of Mass Politics	130
	Mid-Nineteenth-Century Libel Suits: A Survey	130
	Debating the Law of Libel	134
	The Press, Mass Politics, and Free Debate	140
	Mid-Nineteenth-Century Libertarianism: Public Opinion and the Marketplace of Ideas	145
	The Law of Libel in the Age of Mass Politics	151
7.	Beyond Hamiltonianism: Libel Law Debates, 1840-1880	153
	Mid-Nineteenth-Century Libertarianism: A Critique	153
	A New Law of Libel?	156
	Thomas Cooley and the New Law of Libel	161
	Defining a Conditional Privilege	167
	Thomas Cooley and Conditional Privilege: The Michigan Supreme Court Experience	173
	Beyond Hamiltonianism: Libel Law Debates	177
8.	Legal Science and Hamiltonian Principles: Libel Law, 1880-1920	178
	Mr. Justice Cooley Retreats	178
	Mr. Justice Cooley and the Popular Press	184
	The Renewed Faith in Legal Restraints	190
	Reviving the Law of Libel	197
	Legal Science and Hamiltonian Principles: Libel Law, 1880-1920	204
9.	Libel Law from World War I to the Cold-War Era	207
	Twentieth-Century Libel Law: Framing the Issues	207
	Origins of a National Surveillance State	208
	Libel Laws Are Not Enough: The Search for New Restraints	212
	The Law of Libel: Familiar Debates and New Approaches	219
	The Realities of Libel Litigation	222
	Living with the Law of Libel	226
	Libel Law from World War I to the Cold-War Era	232
	10. The Law of Libel in Troubled Times	235
	The Supreme Court Confronts Libel Law	235
	Cold-War Libertarianism	237
	The Sullivan Case	243
	Sullivan's Travels	248
	The Law of Libel in Troubled Times	255
	Conclusion. An Interpretation of the History of Political Libel Law	258
	The Basic Themes of Political Libel Law	258
	A Critical Analysis of Political Libel	262
	An Interpretation of the History of Political Libel Law	265
	Abbreviations	269
	Notes	273
	Bibliography	341
	Index	359

Questia Books and Articles on Similar Subjects