This book should be required reading for everyone in the “free” world.

Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media by Jacob Mchangama should have a byline. I propose “And Why We Should Want it Even Though Humans are Stupid.”

The format of the book is just what you see on the tin. It’s a history of free speech from Ancient Athens to modern Social Media, and it is very engaging. All of the time periods are equally interesting, but I listened to this book after reading an article by Mr. Mchangama about the Weimar Fallacy: the belief that if the Weimar Republic had just censored the Nazis the Third Reich never would have happened.

[Read more…]