{"product_id":"obscenity-rules-roth-v-united-states-and-the-long-struggle-over-sexual-expression-9780700619375","title":"Obscenity Rules: Roth V. United States and the Long Struggle Over Sexual Expression","description":"For some, he was \"America's leading smut king,\" hauled into court repeatedly over thirty years for peddling obscene publications through the mail. But when Samuel Roth appealed a 1956 conviction, he forced the Supreme Court to finally come to grips with a problem that had plagued both American society and constitutional law for longer than he had been in business. For while the facts of \u003ci\u003eRoth v. United States\u003c\/i\u003e were unexceptional, its constitutional issues would define the relationship of obscenity to the First Amendment. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in \u003ci\u003eRoth\u003c\/i\u003e for the first time tried to definitively rule on the issue of obscenity in American life and law--and failed. In this first book-length examination of the case, Whitney Strub lays out the history of obscenity's meaning as a legal concept, highlights the influence of antivice crusaders like Anthony Comstock and John Sumner, and chronicles the shadowy career that led Roth to spend nearly a decade of his life imprisoned for the allegedly obscene materials that he sent through the mails. Strub then unwraps the events that produced \u003ci\u003eRoth v. United States\u003c\/i\u003e, placing the trial in the context of its times--the Kinsey Reports, the Kefauver hearings, free speech debates--by using Roth's own private papers along with the records of the various prosecutions and the memos of the justices. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe significance of \u003ci\u003eRoth\u003c\/i\u003e, as Strub reveals, lay in the two faces of Justice William Brennan's majority opinion--which on the one hand reflected the liberalizing attitude toward sexual matters in mid-century America, but on the other kept \"obscene\" expressions beyond First Amendment protection. Because that ruling points up the contradictions of a society where the prurient and repressive commingle uncomfortably, Strub shows how \u003ci\u003eRoth\u003c\/i\u003e says much more about American sexual values than Brennan's written words necessarily acknowledged. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn our era of internet pornography and \u003ci\u003eFifty Shades of Grey\u003c\/i\u003e, it may be difficult to imagine a time when obscenity was a matter for the courts. As Strub tracks the legacy of \u003ci\u003eRoth\u003c\/i\u003e and obscenity law through the ongoing policing of acceptable sexuality into the twenty-first century, his riveting narrative brings those times to life and helps readers navigate the fine line between what is socially acceptable and what is criminally obscene.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhitney Strub is an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University in Newark and the author of \u003ci\u003ePerversion for Profit: The Politics of Pornography and the Rise of the New Right\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Kansas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50327532765458,"sku":"9780700619375","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c6b3967c-f188-4036-8206-01f513ef3b14.jpg?v=1727716365","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/obscenity-rules-roth-v-united-states-and-the-long-struggle-over-sexual-expression-9780700619375","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}