Free Speech is that rare book which will impress scholars as much as it entertains readers, all while telling the world's most improbable success story - Jonathan Rauch, author of The Constitution of Knowledgeįreedom of speech has emerged as a major issue of this decade, but most of the discussion consists of outrages over speech or the repression of speech.
Mchangama brings to life the ancient struggles which established free speech and also the modern dangers which embattle it.
It teems with valuable insights, lively characters, and the author's passion for the cause he has done so much to advance. Jacob Mchangama's history of the world's strangest, best idea is the definitive account we have been waiting for. Publisher: John Murray Press ISBN: 9781529382198 Number of pages: 528 Weight: 780 g Dimensions: 240 x 164 x 46 mm MEDIA REVIEWS Meticulously researched, deeply humane and provocative, Free Speech challenges us all to recognise how much we have gained from this principle - and how much we stand to lose without it. Yet the desire to restrict speech is also a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all kinds. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders - from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Razi, to Mary Wollstonecraft, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and modern-day digital activists - Mchangama demonstrates how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political, and cultural history of this idea. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Hailed as the "first freedom," free speech is the bedrock of democracy. A global history of free speech, from the ancient world to today.
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