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Or to use my example, while individual freedom of expression in presidential elections (or railing against City Hall) surely brings about a rosy glow of self-fulfillment and furthers the goals of self-government, Dr. Melkonian—building on social theory—also views the very act of communicating differing views as a cause and result of complex democratic society—essential (and, hence, present) in democracies like America, the United Kingdom, or Japan; unnecessary (and, hence, absent) in totalitarian regimes such as North Korea. Dr. Melkonian does not so much reject traditional theories of free expression (although he does find logical shortcomings with some). Rather, he seeks to reorient our perspective—from philosophical to sociological.
While Dr. Melkonian employs a sociology framework, this is very much a book about the law, and free speech law in particular. Dr. Melkonian finds convincing validation for the role sociology plays in the evolution of free expression through, for example, a fascinating analysis of the demise of criminal libel laws in the United Kingdom and United States––correctly noting that, as countries like the United Kingdom and United States have moved from their agrarian past to complex industrial societies (in which communication of views is essential to societal cohesion), criminal libel has been replaced by the tort of civil libel as the appropriate remedy to balance speech and reputational interests. He also surveys the U.S. Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence (and, indeed, the development of First Amendment doctrine and libel laws) through the unique prism of social theory. And while this is surely a book about big ideas, along the way Dr. Melkonian treats us to a colorful array of examples and supporting evidence that make this journey eminently enjoyable—including “tongue boring and limb breaking” (seventeenth-century punishments for libel), the murals of Diego Rivera, the middle finger, the Protestant Reformation, the Alien & Sedition Acts, and even the archeological digs at Catalhoyuk and Gobekli Tepe in Turkey.
Suffice it to say that, not unlike an archeologist, Dr. Melkonian seeks to reinterpret the shards of free expression development using the tools of