Major New Encyclopedia Features Numerous Prominent Scholars, First of Its Kind in Print

Newswise — The most comprehensive reference compilation ever published on the United States' most fundamental freedom brings together the works of accomplished scholars to create the Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. This groundbreaking new two-volume set is published by Washington, D.C.-based CQ Press and is available now through bookstores and online at http://www.cqpress.com.

The encyclopedia examines all five freedoms covered in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, including religion, speech, press, assembly and petition. Entries are divided into the broad categories of concepts and legal terms, controversial works, documents, events, governmental entities, groups and organizations, issues, laws and proposed laws, methods of interpretation, media, people, and religious perspectives and churches.

John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University and former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, penned the introduction, titled "The First Forty-Five Words." The editors are Dr. John R. Vile, dean of the University Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), Murfreesboro, Tenn.; David Hudson Jr., adjunct MTSU political science professor and scholar at the First Amendment Center; and Dr. David Schultz, professor in the School of Business at Hamline University and a senior fellow in the Institute of Law and Politics at the University of Minnesota School of Law.

Seigenthaler, for whom an endowed chair of excellence in First Amendment studies at MTSU's College of Mass Communication is named, says, "At such a time, this encyclopedia detailing and defining First Amendment rights could not be more valuable. "¦ In a real sense, [it] serves the public interest."

"With over 1,400 entries from more than 200 contributors, I believe this will be the definitive reference book on the First Amendment for the foreseeable future," says Vile, an expert in constitutional law. "It was heartening to have colleagues from such a wide variety of colleges and universities from many different disciplines contribute to these volumes."

Following Seigenthaler's introduction, "The First Forty-Five Words," the encyclopedia opens with major essays by eminent scholars such as Dr. Robert O'Neil, founder of the Thomas Jefferson Center at the University of Virginia, and Judge Michael McConnell of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Other distinguished contributors of major essays include C. Neal Tate, Vanderbilt University; Bruce E. Auerbach, Albright College; Robert D. Richards, Pennsylvania State University; Erwin Chemerinsky, University of California, Irvine; and Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director, First Amendment Center.

"Arranged in traditional A-to-Z encyclopedia format, this work traces themes like expressive rights in American political and legal history, in American political thought and social movements, in political and popular culture, and in the arts, along with the classic tensions between freedom of the individual and maintenance of political order," notes http://www.cqpress.com. In addition, the set has a timeline, a selection of primary documents in the appendices, a bibliography and subject and case indices.

Vile and Hudson will discuss the Encyclopedia of the First Amendment on "MTSU on the Record" on Murfreesboro-based WMOT-FM (89.5 and at wmot.org) at 7 a.m. on Sunday, November 23. Beginning Monday, Nov. 24, 2008, the podcast will be available at http://frank.mtsu.edu/~proffice/podcast2008.html.

Encyclopedia editor Dr. John Vile is available for print and broadcast interviews upon request. Podcast audio available after Nov. 24, 2008.