Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus. By Donald Alexander Downs. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 318p. $28.99 cloth, $19.99 paper.

The title reflects the background premise of this recent work: restoring free speech and liberty on campus. Free speech has been threatened on campus but it can be restored. That is the message that Donald Downs wants to convey. He is a professor of political science and law at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and an unabashed champion of free speech. He cites John Stuart Mill with respect, and he is something that has become less common on American campuses, an old-fashioned liberal. Nearly a quarter of the book, in fact, is a personal memoir of Downs' success, at Wisconsin, in persuading the faculty senate to repeal its overly restrictive speech code.