AUBURN – “The Fight for Free Speech from the Past to Post-9/11” is the title of a talk being presented by noted historian and activist Christopher Finan at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10, at the Auburn Public Library. Open to the public free, the event is part of the community-wide program, “The Big Read: L-A Reads Fahrenheit 451.”

A recognized warrior for First Amendment rights, Finan authored the 2007 book “From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America.” He said, “The fight for free speech is waged in daily struggles throughout our country. It is one of the least noticed and most important stories in American history.”

In his talk at the Auburn Public Library, which is the Big Read: L-A’s keynote address, Finan will lead his audience through a century of challenges to free speech, including incidents such as Gen. A. Mitchell Palmer’s roundup and deportation of 800 Russian immigrants in 1919, the clean-books bill in the 1920s, the 1950s Red Scare spread by Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and onto the doorstep of the 21st century with the rise of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.

Finally, Finan will usher listeners into the new millennium and the post-9/11 era by examining the controversial Patriot Act, the law allowing the government to conduct secret surveillance.

Along the way, he will put faces to the triumphs and breaches of the Constitution with a host of characters as varied as Emma Goldman, H.L. Mencken, Hugh Hefner and John Ashcroft.

A resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., Finan has worked for free expression groups since 1982. He is on the board of directors of the National Coalition against Censorship, is a trustee of the Freedom to Read Foundation, and is the president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Finan is also the author of “Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior,” about the life of the crusading liberal who was the first Catholic candidate for president of the U.S.

For more information about the program and other Big Read: L-A activities, call the Auburn Public Library at 333-6640 or visit www.auburnpubliclibrary.org.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest, designed to restore reading to the center of U.S. culture by encouraging citizens to read, discuss and celebrate a single book in their communities through a series of special events.

“Fahrenheit 451” is the focus of Lewiston-Auburn’s 2008 Big Read: L-A program. The 1953 novel by Ray Bradbury tells of a futuristic society in which books and the knowledge that they contain are seen as a threat by the government and firefighters are sent into citizens’ homes to find and burn any books which may be hidden there.