A state-of-the-constitution analysis of free speech today laments assaults on this fundamental privilege by the left and the right and passionately reaffirms the right of free expression. By the author of The New Equality. Tour.

Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other

Hentoff, Nat

Harpercollins

Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American

Nat Hentoff is one of America's foremost and most passsionate writers about civil liberties and civil rights. In Living the Bill of Rights, he has taken what is too often thought of as an abstract issue and enlivened it by focusing on representative individuals for whom the Constitution is a vital part of life. 
 As the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan told Hentoff, Americans need to know how :American liberties were won--and what it takes to keep them alive...and about the actual people who are not afraid to fight to keep on being free Americans." Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy underlined this need when he wrote, "The Constitution needs allegiance and loyalty and renewal and understanding each generation, or else it's not going to last." 
 With characteristic eloquence, Hentoff covers the full range of American life in these inspiring and moving profiles and stories and portrays such fighters for the Bill of Rights as a high school senior in Tennessee who is born-again Christian; a black Texas lawyer fired by the local NAACP for representing a Klan wizard on constitutional grounds; Justice William Brennan himself; another Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas, the preeminent; and a professional basketball star who, for religious reasons, would not participate in a display of mass loyalty to the American flag.
 Adding to the book's breadth are stories about such additional public and private heroes as Dr. Kenneth Clark, a resolute African-American school integrationist when more and more Americans, including some blacks, are abandoning that goal; a Jewish teacher at a black university who spoke out compellingly against black anti-Semitism; a young white mother who refused to allow anyone to stereotype her or her children by their color; a black high school student who did not stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because she believes there is not equal justice for all in this land; and finally, among other paladins of liberty, a Southern lawyer with clients on death row whom he will not abandon. 
 In Living the Bill of Rights, Hentoff illuminates the basic necessity--and fragility--of our rights and liberties.

Specialties

Harper

Nat Hentoff has been listening to jazz, blues, country, and gospel since he was eight years old and tuned in (under the bedsheets) to Fats Waller broadcasting from Chicago's Hotel Sherman during the Depression - and he has been writing about it nearly ever since, with ever-increasing passion. This new book is the fruit of long nights of listening to, watching, traveling and talking with, and knowing firsthand jazz musicians and country and gospel singers from all over the nation - a book of truly American originals.

Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music

Arts & Photography

Music

Interviews with and profiles of some of the nation's greatest jazz, country, and gospel musicians are joined by personal commentary and reminiscence by the noted critic, columnist, and jazz aficionado's pieces that first appeared in The Wall Street Journal. National ad/promo.

Perennial

Hentoff's timely, fact-filled, and illuminating book describes the current assault on free speech from all points of the political spectrum--even from the traditionally liberal groups now intent on repressing opinions thought "politically incorrect."

Constitutional Law

Jazz

The names of Nat Hentoff and Albert J. McCarthy have become almost synonymous with jazz writing. Hentoff, editor of Jazz Review, writer for Downbeat, High Fidelity, New Yorker, and theVillage Voice, and McCarthy, editor of Jazz Monthly, have raised jazz beyond mere appreciation and discography to a subject which demands the rigorous application of musicological, sociological, and historical analysis. In addition to their own contributions, the twelve articles they have commissioned by internationally noted critics and scholars provide almost revolutionary evidence of the emergence of Jazz as a serious art form.

McCarthy, Albert

Da Capo Press

Traces the origins of jazz in the urban culture of black America and profiles such pioneers as Count Basie, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane

The Jazz Life

The names of Nat Hentoff and Albert J. McCarthy have become almost synonymous with jazz writing. Hentoff, editor of Jazz Review, writer for Downbeat, High Fidelity, New Yorker, and the Village Voice, and McCarthy, editor of Jazz Monthly, have raised jazz beyond mere appreciation and discography to a subject which demands the rigorous application of musicological, sociological, and historical analysis. In addition to their own contributions, the twelve articles they have commissioned by internationally noted critics and scholars provide almost revolutionary evidence of the emergence of Jazz as a serious art form.

Jazz: New Perspectives On The History Of Jazz By Twelve Of The World's Foremost Jazz Critics And Scholars

McCarthy, Albert J.

Da Capo

The last few years have witnessed an enormous resurgence in the popularity of jazz, after some lean times in the sixties when many potential jazz fans turned to rock. Now the pendulum is on the backswing, and vintage and modern jazz as well as "jazz rock" are attracting huge new audiences. One factor involved in the comeback of jazz among blacks and whites alike is the rise of black consciousness, with its search for roots in the American experience. Nat Hentoff's The Jazz Life explores the social, economic, and psychological elements that make up the context of modern jazz. Among the jazz greats whose lives and work are discussed are Count Basie, Charles Mingus, John Lewis, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Ornette Coleman. Written with intelligence, passion, and wit, this jazz classic is of immense importance to anyone wanting a better understanding of the jazz—or indeed our American life.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Short biographies of twenty-one outstanding jazz figures provide an overview of the lives and events that shaped a major aspect of American music

The Jazz Makers

Shapiro, Nat

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hentoff, Nat. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hentoff, Nat

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hentoff, Nat. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other

Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American

Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music

Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music

Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other

Jazz

The Jazz Life

Jazz: New Perspectives On The History Of Jazz By Twelve Of The World's Foremost Jazz Critics And Scholars

The Jazz Life

The Jazz Makers