Toby Young Toby Young

Are cancel-culture activists aware of their sinister bedfellows?

Censorship is always the first weapon of tyranny – as today’s most repressive regimes plainly exemplify, says Jacob Mchangama

Saudi Arabia was one of the states to abstain from the final version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [Alamy]
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  • Free Speech: A Global History From Socrates to Social Media

    Jacob Mchangama

    Basic Books, pp. 514, £25

Is there a woke case to be made for freedom of expression? Jacob Mchangama certainly seems to think so. This 500-page door-stopper, which combines a history of free speech with a persuasive case for its defence, is aimed squarely at snowflakes and social justice warriors. Mchangama deals patiently and methodically with all the objections they might make to ‘the first freedom’ and then tries to convince them it’s in their interests to defend it.

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