Free speech is a clarion call all over the world. Across premodern societies, regulating speech was essential for maintaining order, however, in the early 1700s, the idea of free speech as a right began to emerge. What it means today is more contested than ever.
Historian Fara Dabhoiwala traces its evolution from a global perspective ranging across Europe, North America and South Asia. Dabhoiwala rejects celebratory platitudes about the past and present of free expression, explaining how to think more deeply about free speech as a global as well as a local question, showing that history complicates our contemporary presumptions, and suggesting fresh possibilities for the future.
Chaired by Richard Moss
Tickets £10.50/£8.50
“Eye-opening, thought-provoking and deeply enjoyable, What is Free Speech? is a work of great profundity and brilliance.” – William Dalrymple
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