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In these seventeen essays, distinguished senior scholars discuss the conceptual issues surrounding the idea of freedom of inquiry and scrutinize a variety of obstacles to such inquiry that they have encountered in their personal and professional experience. Their discussion of threats to freedom traverses a wide disciplinary and institutional, political and economic range covering specific restrictions linked to speech codes, the interests of donors, institutional review board licensing, political pressure groups, and government policy, as well as phenomena of high generality, such as intellectual orthodoxy, in which coercion is barely visible and often self-imposed. As the editors say in their introduction: "No freedom can be taken for granted, even in the most well-functioning of formal democracies. Exposing the tendencies that undermine freedom of inquiry and their hidden sources and widespread implications is in itself an exercise in and for democracy."

On the basis of a mail survey of US authors (N = 2,241 writers with at least one book published), estimates of their general economic status are given. With few exceptions, authors earn little; the median writing-related income in 1979 was $4,775, a median rate of $4.90 an hour. Only those who can spend long hours writing stand a reasonable chance of making a modest income from it. The median writing-related income among the 23% of authors who work at least 40 hours at their writing was $16,000. Because of income from other sources, predominantly other professional jobs, & contributions from their spouses, most authors live modestly well; the median family income was $38,000. Almost 50% held a position besides freelance writing; fewer than 5% had been career-long, full-time writers. The unusual nature of the occupation is suggested by the fact that a wide range of their personal characteristics (demographic & SE), as well as important aspects of their writing careers (productivity, recognition, genre, time commitment) account for very little variation in economic success. 9 Tables, 18 References. Modified AA.