A Discourse on Discourse

Robert Boyers is editor of Salmagundi, professor of English at Skidmore College, and director of the New York State Summer Writers Institute. He is the author of ten previous books and the editor of a dozen others. He writes often for such magazines as Harper's, The New Republic, The Nation, Yale Review, and Granta. He is author of The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, the Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies (Scribner), a thought-provoking volume of nine essays that elegantly and fiercely addresses recent developments in American culture and argues for the tolerance of difference that is at the heart of the liberal tradition. Part memoir and part polemic, an anatomy of important and dangerous ideas, and a cri de coeur lamenting the erosion of standard liberal values, Boyers’s collection of essays is devoted to such subjects as tolerance, identity, privilege, appropriation, diversity, and ableism that have turned academic life into a minefield. In stories, anecdotes, and character profiles, a public intellectual and longtime professor takes on those in his own progressive cohort who labor in the grip of a poisonous and illiberal fundamentalism. The end result is a finely tuned work of cultural intervention from the front lines.

Stanley Fish is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Law at Florida International University and a visiting professor of law at Cardozo University. He has previously taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago where he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is the author of many renowned books, including Winning Arguments and How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One. Fish is a former weekly columnist for The New York Times. His essays and articles have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, and The Atlantic. The First: How to Think About Hate Speech, Campus Speech, Religious Speech, Fake News, Post-Truth, and Donald Trump (Atria/One Signal Publishers) is an urgent and sharply observed look at one of the most hotly debated issues of our time: freedom of speech.  From the rise of fake news, to the role of tech companies in monitoring content (including the President’s tweets), to Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest, First Amendment controversies continue to dominate the news cycle. Across America, college campus administrators are being forced to balance free speech against demands for safe spaces and trigger warnings. Urgent and controversial, The First is sure to ruffle feathers, spark dialogue, and shine new light on one of America’s most cherished—and debated—constitutional rights.