{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260416T232012Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674987314?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0674987314","authors":["Fara Dabhoiwala"],"book_id":"9780674987319","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/what-is-free-speech-0674987314","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780674987319.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","description":"“A brilliant history of a weaponized mantra.” — The Guardian A leading intellectual historian shows how free speech, once viewed as both hazardous and unnatural, was reinvented as an unalloyed good, with enormous consequences for our society today. Every premodern society, from Sumeria to China to seventeenth–century Europe, knew that bad words could destroy lives, undermine social order, and create political unrest. Given the obvious dangers of outspokenness, regulating speech and print was universally accepted as a necessary and proper activity of government. Only in the early 1700s did this old way begin to break down. In a brief span of time, the freedom to use words as one pleased was reimagined as an ideal to be held and defended in common. Fara Dabhoiwala explores the surprising paths free speech has taken across the globe since its invention three hundred years ago. Though free speech has become a central democratic principle, its origins and evolution have less to do with the high-minded pursuit of liberty and truth than with the self-interest of the wealthy, the greedy, and the powerful. Free speech, as we know it, is a product of the pursuit of profit, of technological disruption, of racial and imperial hypocrisy, and of the contradictions involved in maintaining openness while suppressing falsehood. For centuries, its shape has everywhere been influenced by international, not just national, events; nowhere has it ever been equally available to women, the colonized, or those stigmatized as racially inferior. Rejecting platitudes about the First Amendment and its international equivalents, and leaving no ideological position undisturbed, What Is Free Speech? is the unsettling history of an ideal as cherished as it is misunderstood.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780674987319","publication_date":"20250805","publisher":"WW Norton","slug":"what-is-free-speech","subtitle":"The History of a Dangerous Idea","title":"What Is Free Speech?"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"POL042040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Radical Politics","score":0.7198,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL042030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Fascism & Totalitarianism","score":0.7117,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SOC026040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Social Theory","score":0.7079,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"POL042040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Radical Politics","score":0.7198,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL042030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Fascism & Totalitarianism","score":0.7117,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SOC026040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Social Theory","score":0.7079,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS037000","confidence_band":"high","label":"World History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Modern History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL039000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Censorship & Free Speech","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Radical Politics","score":0.7198,"slug":"radical-politics"},{"label":"Fascism & Totalitarianism","score":0.7117,"slug":"fascism-totalitarianism"},{"label":"Social Theory","score":0.7079,"slug":"social-theory"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Radical Politics","Good for fans of History","Good for readers who enjoy Radical Politics and Fascism & Totalitarianism."],"related_lists":[{"intro":"Books that trace how artists have confronted political intimidation, organized collective protest, and fought to protect free expression and cultural institutions from state pressure.","slug":"cultural-currents-jane-fonda-arts-activism-free-expression","title":"Artists Against The State: Protest, Censorship, and Cultural Power","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/cultural-currents-jane-fonda-arts-activism-free-expression"},{"intro":"Books that explore why political speeches by entertainers at events like the Oscars carry real weight in debates over war, free expression, and public dissent.","slug":"cultural-currents-bardem-oscars-political-speeches","title":"When The Stage Becomes a Podium","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/lists/cultural-currents-bardem-oscars-political-speeches"}],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Ruth Kinna"],"book_id":"9780141984667","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141984667.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":19.5098,"title":"The Government of No One","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141984667"},{"authors":["Friedrich Engels","Michèle Barrett","Tristram Hunt"],"book_id":"9780141191119","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141191119.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":18.5333,"title":"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141191119"},{"authors":["Peter Kropotkin","David Priestland","Pyotr Kropotkin"],"book_id":"9780141396118","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141396118.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":16.958,"title":"The Conquest of Bread","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141396118"},{"authors":["Robert O. Paxton"],"book_id":"9781400033911","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781400033911.jpg?v=20260416T232012Z%3A2026-04-16T23%3A20%3A12Z","score":15.932,"title":"The Anatomy of Fascism","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781400033911"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:world history"],"label":"History","score":0.9238,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political science"],"label":"Science","score":0.2945,"slug":"science"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:world history"],"label":"World","score":0.2022,"slug":"world"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political science"],"label":"Political","score":0.1549,"slug":"political"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political philosophy"],"label":"Philosophy","score":0.1142,"slug":"philosophy"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: History, Science, Political.","Reading lane: Radical Politics and Fascism & Totalitarianism.","Publisher: WW Norton."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":94,"goodreads_reviews_count":12,"quality_score":0.8631}}