Free Speech: A Global History from Socrates to Social Media

This outstanding book gets it in one: free speech, as that right and privilege has been fought for and exercised as a key component of our always fragile democracies, is currently experiencing the greatest threat imaginable. To learn exactly how and why, and what we can do to eliminate or minimise this threat, everyone needs to read this deeply researched and powerfully written, truly global history covering everything from the face-to-face world of the ancient Greeks to our own, very different world of anonymous digital media

Freedom 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. Missing is the intellectual background: What does free speech really mean? What is its history? How has it played out in world events? Why should we defend it? Jacob Mchangama lays out this context with deep erudition, strong writing, and a light touch

Scholarly in its erudition, but also immensely readable . . . Free speech is not a fashionable value - often perceived in 2022 as an outright threat to modern notions of social justice. This superb book is a corrective to that intellectual and cultural wrong turn and, as such, deserves as wide a readership as possible

Jacob Mchangama's history of the world's strangest, best idea is the definitive account we have been waiting for. It teems with valuable insights, lively characters, and the author's passion for the cause he has done so much to advance. Mchangama brings to life the ancient struggles which established free speech and also the modern dangers which embattle it. 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

The best history of free speech ever written and the best defense of free speech ever made. Jacob Mchangama never loses sight of the trouble freedom causes but always keeps in mind that lack of freedom creates horrors

In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama presents a compelling case for the unique, universal, enduring importance of free and equal speech for all people, regardless of their particular identities or ideologies. This fascinating account, of magisterial scope, demonstrates the constant liberating and equalizing force of free speech, throughout history and around the world. It also documents the constant censorial pressures, including many that reflect positive aims, and their inevitable suppression of full and equal human rights