I’d also recommend works by those who’ve lived through the systematic suppression of their speech - writers like Havel’s The power of the powerless, Milosz’s The captive mind, Grossman‘s Life and fate, Solzhenitsyn, etc
Great recommendations, Greg. To piggyback off this one, in addition to On Liberty, what would your top 5 recommendations be for books on the foundations of what actually produced free speech and the culture we fight over today?
You chose wisely Greg, particularly by placing Jacob Mchangama’s book in first place. He is the reason that I became a FIRE member. I chanced upon him while at the gym running on the treadmill. He was on a panel discussing (or debating) free speech. In any event, I was blown away by his calm demeanor and erudition. I looked him up when I got home and discovered his podcast Clear and Present Danger.
I have listened to it several times, particularly The Totalitarian Temptation episodes. Obviously, I needed to read the book, several copies of which I have given to friends.
He writes in a style that is easily readable by anyone, unlike Mill, who is beyond the reading skills of the average person today.
Thank you for the list. I look forward to expanding my understanding.
For a couple more conservative selections, which point out the weaknesses of Mill and his acolytes, try Francis Canavan's Freedom of Expression: Purpose as Limit, and David Lowenthal's No License for Liberty. For an application of Canavan's use of classic SCOTUS dicta--much of it semi-Millian--in articulating a "purpose" for free press and free speech rights, see my just-published essay, "The Purpose of Open Journalism and Free Speech." https://pomocon.substack.com/p/the-purpose-of-open-journalism-and This essay is preparing the ground for a fuller attack to come on the "conservative" and "libertarian" participation in one of the greatest journalistic Suppression campaigns ever, the present one against the widespread covid-vax-harms story.
I distinguish suppression from First-amendment-violative censorship. Would love to hear any of your far-more-experienced-in-this-area thoughts on my approaches, or Canavan's.
If I was a betting man, I would probably attribute it to the differences in how agreeable/disagreeable men and women are on average and at the extremes.
My observation is that many/most of the people in the free speech space tend to be disagreeable and women are, on average, more agreeable.
More disagreeable women I can think of are those such as Sarah Haider, Meghan Daum, Rebecca Traister and Claire Lehmann are all in the free speech business to one degree or another.
I’d also recommend works by those who’ve lived through the systematic suppression of their speech - writers like Havel’s The power of the powerless, Milosz’s The captive mind, Grossman‘s Life and fate, Solzhenitsyn, etc
Great recommendations, Greg. To piggyback off this one, in addition to On Liberty, what would your top 5 recommendations be for books on the foundations of what actually produced free speech and the culture we fight over today?
You chose wisely Greg, particularly by placing Jacob Mchangama’s book in first place. He is the reason that I became a FIRE member. I chanced upon him while at the gym running on the treadmill. He was on a panel discussing (or debating) free speech. In any event, I was blown away by his calm demeanor and erudition. I looked him up when I got home and discovered his podcast Clear and Present Danger.
I have listened to it several times, particularly The Totalitarian Temptation episodes. Obviously, I needed to read the book, several copies of which I have given to friends.
He writes in a style that is easily readable by anyone, unlike Mill, who is beyond the reading skills of the average person today.
Thank you for the list. I look forward to expanding my understanding.
Thanks for these @glukianoff! This is a post I really needed right now!
For a couple more conservative selections, which point out the weaknesses of Mill and his acolytes, try Francis Canavan's Freedom of Expression: Purpose as Limit, and David Lowenthal's No License for Liberty. For an application of Canavan's use of classic SCOTUS dicta--much of it semi-Millian--in articulating a "purpose" for free press and free speech rights, see my just-published essay, "The Purpose of Open Journalism and Free Speech." https://pomocon.substack.com/p/the-purpose-of-open-journalism-and This essay is preparing the ground for a fuller attack to come on the "conservative" and "libertarian" participation in one of the greatest journalistic Suppression campaigns ever, the present one against the widespread covid-vax-harms story.
I distinguish suppression from First-amendment-violative censorship. Would love to hear any of your far-more-experienced-in-this-area thoughts on my approaches, or Canavan's.
Mill's On Liberty is in the public domain and you can read it for free on Wikisource.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_Liberty
Fourteen books, one by a woman. What's gendered here -- the topic, the writing of books on the topic, the post? I'm curious.
This is a great opportunity for you to make a suggestion. I would be interested.
In Defense of Free Speech by Amy Lai.
Free Speech in the Digital Age, ed. Susan Brison and Katharine Gelber.
Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis by Lindsay Shepherd.
But I'm asking seriously -- where is the gendering here -- the topic, the writing of books on the topic, the post? I remain curious.
If I was a betting man, I would probably attribute it to the differences in how agreeable/disagreeable men and women are on average and at the extremes.
My observation is that many/most of the people in the free speech space tend to be disagreeable and women are, on average, more agreeable.
More disagreeable women I can think of are those such as Sarah Haider, Meghan Daum, Rebecca Traister and Claire Lehmann are all in the free speech business to one degree or another.