The Fundamental Holmes

Ronald Collins is a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C. He is a noted authority on free speech law. His last book, The Trials of Lenny Bruce (with David Skover), was selected by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best books of the year. Collins is also the co-author (with Sam Chaltain) of the forthcoming We Must Not Be Afraid to Be Free: Stories of Free Speech in America and the editor of Constitutional Government in America. His scholarly articles have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review and the Supreme Court Review, among other places.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., one of the greatest legal minds in American history, revised many of his own views while playing a pivotal role in transforming the American law of free speech from a restrictive to a protective tradition. Beyond collecting for the first time an impressive array of sources by and about Holmes that relate to his thinking about free speech, Collins has added his own incisive commentary. This comprehensive volume is a major contribution to scholarship on Holmes and the First Amendment. David Rabban Dahr Jamail, Randall Hage Jamail and Robert Lee Jamail Regents Chair University Distinguished Teaching Professor University of Texas School of Law

• 1. On life and war; 2. General conceptions - the early writings; 3. The state court years - fettered freedom; 4. Supreme Court opinions - the early years; 5. Supreme Court opinions - 'while a nation is at war'; 6. Supreme Court opinions - experimenting with freedom; 7. Legacy - the long shadow.