This book traces the history of the freedom not to speak from the
Middle Ages to the 20th century and the House Committee on
Un-American Activities. It addresses the Civil War and
Reconstruction loyalty oaths by Union Confederate soldiers, and the
expulsion of Jehovah's Witnesses from schools for refusing to
salute the flag, and includes an analysis of coerced speech in a
variety of literary works. The author also considers the future of
this right to silence, and argues for the importance of a
specifically labelled and firmly established freedom not to speak.
