Fara Dabhoiwala What Is Free Speech? : The History of a Dangerous Idea Hardback Book

Eyeopening, thoughtprovoking and deeply enjoyable, What is Free Speech? is a work of great profundity and brilliance William DalrympleA fresh and exciting approach to one of the most controversial subjects of our timeFree Speech! is a clarion call all over the world, yet what it means today is more contested than ever. Many cultures regard it as dangerous in China, India, and across the Islamic world, unorthodox views about politics, sex, and religion are repressed and people are often punished for expressing them. Even in the western world, where it is held up as a core value, there is widespread discord and disagreement about what freedom of expression means. Amidst perennial imbalances of power, continually evolving cultural taboos, dramatic new technologies and a fastchanging global media landscape, where free speech comes from and how we might think about it are critical questions. Through the lens of history, What Is Free Speech? shows us that freedom of speech is not an absolute from which societies and regimes have drifted or dissented at different times, but something more complicated and interesting. Our modern conceptions of press and speech liberty, Dabhoiwala shows, were invented in Britain around 1700. The real history of freedom of expression is a story of countless fascinating men and women whose lives have shaped its principles and practices over the past 300 years slaves and imperialists, poets and philosophers, plutocrats and revolutionaries. Ranging... | Fara Dabhoiwala What Is Free Speech? : The History of a Dangerous Idea Hardback Book