Fight of the century : writers reflect on 100 years of landmark ACLU cases Cover Image

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Fight of the century : writers reflect on 100 years of landmark ACLU cases

Chabon, Michael, (editor.). Waldman, Ayelet, (editor.). Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971- Stromberg v. California (1931) (Added Author). Woodson, Jacqueline. Powell v. Alabama (1932) and Patterson v. Alabama (1935) (Added Author). Chabon, Michael. United States v. One book called "Ulysses" (1933) (Added Author). Patchett, Ann. Edwards v. California (1941) (Added Author). Bennett, Brit. West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) (Added Author). Okazaki, Steven. Korematsu v. United States (1944) (Added Author). Handler, Daniel. Hannegan v. Esquire (1946) (Added Author). Brooks, Geraldine. Terminiello v. City of Chicago (1949) (Added Author). Gyasi, Yaa. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) (Added Author). Pava, Sergio de la. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) (Added Author).

Summary: To mark its 100-year anniversary, the American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman to bring together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case. On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation's premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays about landmark cases in the organization's one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in--Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona--need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue. Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights--which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU's spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU's stance on campaign finance. These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted. Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

Record details

ISBN: 1501190407
ISBN: 9781501190407
Physical Description: xxiv, 305 pages ; 24 cm
print
Edition: First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.
Publisher: New York : Avid Reader Press, 2020.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

Stromberg v. California (1931) / Viet Thanh Nguyen -- Powell v. Alabama (1932) and Patterson v. Alabama (1935) / Jacqueline Woodson -- United States v. One Book Called "Ulysses" (1933) / Michael Chabon -- Edwards v. California (1941) / Ann Patchett -- West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) / Brit Bennett -- Korematsu v. United States (1944) / Steven Ozazaki -- Hannegan v. Esquire (1946) / Daniel Handler -- Terminello v. City of Chicago (1949) / Geraldine Brooks -- Brown v. Board of Education of Topkea (1954) / Yaa Gyasi -- Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) / Sergio De La Pava -- Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) / Dave Eggers -- New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) / Timothy Egan -- Lamont v. Postmaster General (1965) / Yiyun Li -- Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) / Meg Wolitzer -- Miranda v. Arizona (1966) / Hectar Tobar -- Loving v. Virginia (1967) / Alexksandar Hemon -- Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) / Elizabeth Strout -- Gregory v. City of Chicago (1969) / Adrian Nicole LeBlanc -- Street v. New York (1969) / Rabih Alameddine -- Brandenberg v. Ohio (1969) / Moriel Rothman-Zecher -- Cohen v. California (1971) / Jonathan Lethem -- New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) / Salman Rushdie -- Roe v. Wade (1973) and Doe v. Bolton (1973) / Lauren Groff -- O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975) / Ayelet Waldman -- Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld (1975) / Jennifer Egan -- Buckley v. Valeo (1976) / Scott Turow -- Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) / Morgan Parker -- Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993) / Victor Lavalle -- Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995) / Michael Cunningham -- Reno v. ACLU(1997) and Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004) / Neil Gaiman -- City of Chicago v. Morales (1999) / Jesmyn Ward -- Zadvydas v. David (2001) / Moses Sumney -- Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr (2001) / George Saunders -- Lawrence v. Texas (2003) / Marlon James -- Rasul v. Bush (2004) / William Finnegan -- Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (2005) / Anthony Doerr -- Schroer v. Billington (2008) / Charlie Jane Anders -- Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (2013) / Brenda J. Child -- United States v. Windsor (2013) / Andrew Sean Greer -- ACLU v. United States Department of Defense, et al. (2018) / Louise Erdrich.