The course of tolerance : freedom of the press in nineteenth-century America /

This highly recommended volume fills a gap in most freedom of expression histories, which, with a passing nod to Lovejoy, jump from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the Espionage Act of 1918. Dickerson demonstrates that in this period a lot happened in addition to the murder of Elijah Lovejoy. The details of confrontations presented in this study show that the issues were state and local rather than federal and too often resolved by violence against those who challenged community norms. Of particular interest is Dickerson's demonstration of a public commitment to freedom of expression providing those who used this freedom were responsible (meaning, "Don't say anything that might upset me"). How little some things change; these same demands are voiced today. The primary sources used to develop this study are all carefully documented. The useful, short selected bibliography is evidence of the sad fact that though communication students and journalism scholars study the same things, one group may not read what the other is doing; consequently, a number of important studies of 19th-century freedom of expression are not mentioned. -P. E. Kane, SUNY College at Brockport