On Dissent
Its Meaning in America

On Dissent attempts to offer a conceptual yardstick that develops clarity about the phenomenon we call 'dissent'.

Ronald K. L. Collins (Author), David M. Skover (Author)

9781107502680, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 July 2015

200 pages
17.8 x 12.7 x 1.1 cm, 0.18 kg

"This is a fine book. It is not hard reading; it is tough thinking. It should be required reading for school board members and other public officials and for everyone who wants to continue to learn." -Tom Phillips, Washington Independent Review of Books

America values dissent. It tolerates, encourages and protects it. But what is this thing we value? That is a question never asked. 'Dissent' is treated as a known fact. For all that has been said about it - in books, articles, judicial opinions, and popular culture - it is remarkable that no one has devoted much, if any, ink to explaining what dissent is. No one has attempted to sketch its philosophical, linguistic, legal or cultural meanings or usages. There is a need to develop some clarity about this phenomenon, for not every difference of opinion, symbolic gesture, public activity in opposition to government policy, incitement to direct action, revolutionary effort or political assassination need be tagged dissent. In essence, we have no conceptual yardstick. It is just that measure of meaning that On Dissent offers.

1. From judicial dissent to peaceful protest
2. From civil to uncivil disobedience
3. The vagaries of violence
4. Dissent, inc.
5. Dissent and law's parameters.

Subject Areas: Law [L], Political science & theory [JPA]