Description

In a book that can be read from either end, two leading thinkers present alternative answers to one of the most difficult and divisive questions of our times

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, argues that alongside the necessary and long-overdue elevation of minority voices in recent years, there has also arisen an uncompromising intolerance – most notably on university campuses and online – that wrongly equates a wide range of offensive speech with violence and seeks to shut it down. This has led to an escalating free speech arms race, from which everyone loses.

Charlotte Lydia Riley, historian of empire and editor of The Free Speech Wars, argues that accusations of cancel culture and defences of free speech are too often disingenuous attempts to fuel a culture war and so inhibit an important realignment in which hateful speech is at last being called out for what it is and the right to free expression is being extended to more people than ever before.

Published in conjunction with Intelligence Squared, the world’s leading curator of debate, this book is part of the THINK AGAIN series: short books that present two expert, contrasting but equally persuasive views in a single volume that can be read from either end.

Publisher Review

– * Praise for DARE TO SPEAK: DEFENDING FREE SPEECH FOR ALL by Suzanne Nossel * This brave, wise, succinct book is a must-read for writers, speakers, teachers, journalists, and, well, anyone who talks — Margaret Atwood An authoritative, essential book — Salman Rushdie A much needed, cogent and compelling blueprint — Hillary Rodham Clinton As a prominent defender of outspoken wordsmiths, Suzanne Nossel knows a thing or two about free speech, and she makes a powerful case that freedom of expression is not just compatible but necessary for the advancement of equality and human rights — Steven Pinker – * Praise for IMPERIAL ISLAND: A HISTORY OF EMPIRE IN MODERN BRITAIN by Charlotte Lydia Riley * A masterful, ingeniously written telling of Britain’s real history … Read this incisive and forensic book, and you won’t look at Britain in the same way ever again — Owen Jones A withering indictment of cruel Britannia … a chilling history of institutional and public prejudice … Riley gives injustices that ought to be better known their due — Guardian A marvellous account of how the empire made modern Britain. With an eye that ranges from popular culture to the highbrow, from high politics to the household, Charlotte Riley’s book is a thought-provoking delight that absolutely everyone should read — Stephen Bush Skilfully, inexorably and powerfully, she builds up a picture that’s been hiding in plain sight for far too long — Lucy Worsley