The text shows how religious censors eventually retreated, in part because Spinoza, Paine, Carlile, Mill, and others cogently argued that intellectual progress depended on free expression. But readers will see that modern secular ideologues—­notably Fascists and Communists—have attacked free speech as brutally as religious inquisitors. Turning to the twenty-first century, Mchangama limns the strange evolution that turned progressive activists celebrating social media enabling Obama to defy establishment control into advocates of 'content moderation,' censorship intended to still the Twitter storms of Trump and his supporters. A provocative exploration of a transformative political right..

Journalist McHangama has written an insightful, nicely woven history that provides a coherent picture of how free speech has developed globally.

... well-researched and highly readable.

... impassioned.

[A] recurring theme in this expansive, atypical history is 'Milton’s Curse,' a disease that afflicts defenders of free speech when they are exposed to power.