Fight of the Century

Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases

By: Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman

Narrated by: an All Star Cast

The American Civil Liberties Union partners with award-winning authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman in this “forceful, beautifully written” (Associated Press) collection that brings together many of our greatest living writers, each contributing an original piece inspired by a historic ACLU case.

On January 19, 1920, a small group of idealists and visionaries, including Helen Keller, Jane Addams, Roger Baldwin, and Crystal Eastman, founded the American Civil Liberties Union. A century after its creation, the ACLU remains the nation’s premier defender of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays “full of struggle, emotion, fear, resilience, hope, and triumph” (Los Angeles Review of Books) about landmark cases in the organization’s one-hundred-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in—Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona—need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now. Familiar or little-known, each case springs to vivid life in the hands of the acclaimed writers who dive into the history, narrate their personal experiences, and debate the questions at the heart of each issue.

Hector Tobar introduces us to Ernesto Miranda, the felon whose wrongful conviction inspired the now-iconic Miranda rights—which the police would later read to the man suspected of killing him. Yaa Gyasi confronts the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, in which the ACLU submitted a friend of- the-court brief questioning why a nation that has sent men to the moon still has public schools so unequal that they may as well be on different planets. True to the ACLU’s spirit of principled dissent, Scott Turow offers a blistering critique of the ACLU’s stance on campaign finance.

These powerful stories, along with essays from Neil Gaiman, Meg Wolitzer, Salman Rushdie, Ann Patchett, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Louise Erdrich, George Saunders, and many more, remind us that the issues the ACLU has engaged over the past one hundred years remain as vital as ever today, and that we can never take our liberties for granted.

Chabon and Waldman are donating their advance to the ACLU and the contributors are forgoing payment.

Critic reviews

"This collection of essays highlights major case law argued by the American Civil Liberties Union over the last century. Works by authors such as Viet Thanh Nguyen, Neil Gaiman, George Saunders, and more are narrated by performers such as Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart, and Lucy Liu. Beyond providing a fascinating exploration of the work accomplished by the ACLU, the audiobook also presents listeners with a rich history of case law that makes aspects of the past and present meaningful and personal. Issues such as the internment of Japanese–Americans during WWII gain new perspective in relation to ICE raids and child detention centers. On the whole, the narrators prove to be well suited to the essays and quite often have personal ties to their topics."

Excellent collection of thought-provoking essays

It was fun to listen to the voices of some of the famous readers, and to hear the examination of Supreme Court cases and their relevance from a wide variety of writers. Very engaging overall and led to some great discussions in the car on a long trip.

Outstanding

Loved every moment of this production. The variety of cases, personal histories and dramatic readings is a treasure. I will be listening to this again soon.

It was much more interesting and full of surprises than I expected.

I enjoyed the voices and perspectives of the various authors and readers, many of whom I have read.

Interesting topic; poorly written book.

I just wanted a brief recap on all of the important cases the ACLU has represented through the years.

Instead, this book provides a bunch of stories written by actors, authors, and activists, retelling the ACLU cases in their paraphrased version. They frequently brought in their own experiences, even if they had nothing to do with the actual ACLU case. Weird.

It was kind of like watching MSNBC anchors rant angrily about something conservatives have done, for about 11 hours.
Shoot me now, and put me out of my misery!!