Is Free Speech Under Threat? - Think Again by Charlotte Lydia Riley & Suzanne Nossel Paperback

Book Synopsis

Two leading thinkers present alternative answers to one of the most difficult and divisive questions of our times: Is free speech under threat?

Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, the leading free expression organization, 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 defenses 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.

Review Quotes

---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

About the Author

Suzanne Nossel is the CEO of PEN America, the leading human rights and free expression organization, and is a key voice on free expression issues in the U.S. and globally. During the Obama administration, Nossel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. She has also served as a senior leader in global human rights organizations and as a media executive. She is the author of Dare To Speak: Defending Free Speech For All and has been widely published in outlets including the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Guardian, Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Washington Post and more. She is a Member of the Meta Oversight Board which applies human rights principles to shape high impact content moderation decisions on social media.

Charlotte Lydia Riley is a historian of 20-century Britain at the University of Southampton, specializing in questions about empire, politics, culture and identity. She is editor of The Free Speech Wars and author of Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain. Her writing has appeared in a wide range of publications including the Guardian, New Statesman, Financial Times, Washington Post and History Today. She tweets @lottelydia.