title: Defending the Masses: A Progressive Lawyer's Battles for Free Speech
author: Eric B. Easton
description: <DIV>"An early twentieth-century champion of the cause of free speech for the American people, Gilbert Roe has found an ideal interpreter in Eric B. Easton, whose own legal background serves him well in analyzing Roe's brilliantly argued wartime freedom of speech cases." Richard Drake, author of <I>The Education of an Anti-Imperialist</I></DIV><br /><br /><DIV>"Gilbert Roe was a remarkable person who associated with and defended the rights of many of the most fascinating people of the Progressive Era. Easton brings all these stories to life in his wonderfully accessible biography." Mark Graber, author of <I>T</DIV>
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  **Aaron Swartz** (1986–2013) was an American computer programmer, a writer, a
  political organizer, and an Internet hacktivist. He was involved in the
  development of RSS, Creative Commons, web.py, and Reddit. He helped launch the
  Progressive Change Campaign Committee in 2009 and founded the online group
  Demand Progress. He is survived by his parents and two brothers, who live in
  Chicago.
  
  
  **Lawrence Lessig** is Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
  He was the director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard
  University and a founding board member of Creative Commons. He lives in
  Cambridge, Massachusetts.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  © 2015 by Sean B. Palmer
  
  
  Introduction © 2015 by Lawrence Lessig
  
  
  All other part introductions and postscript © the individual contributors
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written
  permission from the publisher.
  
  
  Excerpt from _Aaron Swa