Additional Resources: Suggested Readings
Resources for Individual Freedoms, Democratic Participation, and Other Cultures
1984 (1949), by George Orwell. Imagining a futuristic world dominated
by totalitarian governments, Orwell's novel vividly depicts the
consequences and despair of lives without freedom.
Areopagitica (1644), by John Milton. Subtitled "A Speech
of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to
the Parliament of England," Areopagitica represents a classic
defense against censorship of the press. An annotated
version of the speech is online.
The Amistad
Revolt: All We Want is Make Us Free.
Tells the story of the famous 1839 slave revolt. 33-minute video
designed for use in schools. Winner of the 1997 ABA Silver Gavel
Award for Film/Video. The National
Archives has also developed an instructional website on the
Amistad case.
Galileo (1947), by Bertolt Brecht. In this historical drama,
the seventeenth-century life and work of Galileo Galilei represent
the conflict between intellectual freedom and an authoritarian
regime.
Heartbreak House (1919), by George Bernard Shaw. Shaw's
dramatic indictment of the privileged elite of Europe, who in
this play are seen as abdicating their moral, intellectual, and
spiritual leadership as Europe drifts toward the First World War.
The play is set in a ship built to look like a house, suggesting
the ship of state about to founder on the rocks.
In
the Name of the Father (1993). This film is a dramatized account
of the Guilford Four-a group of Irishmen wrongly accused of an
IRA bombing. The film explores the challenges of doing justice
and protecting individual rights in an atmosphere charged with
mutual suspicion and fear.
Planet
of the Apes (1968).
Science-fiction classic starring Charlton Heston as an American
astronaut who travels in time to a strange planet in the year
3978 A.D. The famous ending depicts an unforgettable image of
the Statue of Liberty. On the National
Film Registry.
To
Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Set in a racially divided Alabama town in 1932, lawyer Atticus
Finch (Gregory Peck) defends a black man accused of raping a white
woman. Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. On
the National
Film Registry.
Trifles (1916), by Susan Glaspell. This play, which Glaspell
adapted the following year as the short story "A Jury of
Her Peers," examines how gender affects perceptions of truth
and justice. Local police officers search a house for clues in
a murder, while the officers' wives discover the "real story"
in a conversation in the kitchen with the deceased's wife.
Twelve Angry Men (1957). A classic dramatization of jury
deliberations in a murder case.
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Note: The views expressed here have not been approved by the House of Delegates or the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association, and accordingly, should not be construed as representing the policy of the American Bar Association.
