First Amendment Freedoms: A Reference Handbook offers a comprehensive examination of the discourse on First Amendment freedom issues in an objective and unbiased manner and provides valuable data and documents to guide readers to further research on the subject.

First Amendment Freedoms: A Reference Handbook provides a comprehensive, objective, and accessible source of critically important information on the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly, and the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment. Geared for high school and college readers, it covers relevant historical events from the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to the array of Supreme Court cases that further defined the scope and limits of First Amendment freedoms.



Composed of seven chapters, plus a glossary and index, the volume will present the background and history of the First Amendment; problems, controversies, and solutions; a perspectives chapter with nine original essay contributions; profiles of the leading actors and organizations involved in First Amendment politics; governmental data and excerpts of primary documents on the topic; and a resources chapter comprising an annotated list of the key books, scholarly journals, and nonprint sources on the topic. It closes with a detailed chronology of major events concerning First Amendment freedoms.






Provides readers with a better understanding of the complexity of First Amendment freedoms and how those freedoms have clashed over time



Discusses attempts to "solve" problems concerning the fundamental freedoms defined by the First Amendment and how those attempts have changed and expanded over time



Arms readers with a detailed list and analysis of all of the major or "landmark" Supreme Court cases pertaining to each of the fundamental First Amendment freedoms



Makes a comprehensive but objective review of more than 50 scholarly books on the topic