With a unique & international perspective, @JMchangama’s timely & thorough “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media” shows how ancient & global the fight for free speech has been.

The most important book of 2021 IMO was
@jon_rauch
’s Constitution of Knowledge. Jon covers crises in our knowledge producing fields, higher education & journalism, & reveals the true value of The Enlightenment: the discovery of our profound ignorance.

If you’re unfamiliar with the ancient Greek concepts of isegoria & parrhesia, or you’re unaware of the impact that Rhode Island founder Roger Williams had on the American model for free speech, go pick up a copy of @tmbejan’s great “Mere Civility.”

In “A Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment,” Philipp Blom reminds us that some of the strongest arguments for free speech were articulated in repressive societies.

Michael Kent Curtis’s “Free Speech, The People’s Darling Privilege: Struggles for Freedom of Expression in American History” gives a crash course on the state of the culture of #freespeech under a much weaker #FirstAmendment leading up to 1925.

John Stuart Mill’s 1859 treatise On Liberty remains the single most influential work on free speech in history. Check out “All Minus One,”
@HdxAcademy
’s beautifully illustrated version of the seminal work.

In “Free Speech in its Forgotten Years, 1870-1920,” David M. Rabban details the period between the enactment of the 14th amendment & when SCOTUS finally used it to give the 1st amendment teeth.

In their 1915 Declaration of Principles & 1940 Statement on Academic Freedom & Tenure, the
@AAUP
laid out the compelling case that free speech is critical in academia, & that its protection is as reliant on cultural norms as it is on 1A case law.

“The Great Dissent” by
@HealyProf
details how thinkers like Learned Hand & Harold Laski persuaded Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes to reinterpret the #FirstAmendment to actually mean something in the real world.

Past ACLU President Nadine Stossen reads West Virginia v. Barnette in the only court decision on this list. In it #SCOTUS established that school children couldn’t be compelled to make a value-laden commitment like the pledge of allegiance.

Judge Learned Hand’s 1944 poetic speech, “The Spirit of Liberty” remains a stirring call to action, making the case that liberty must be safeguarded “in the hearts of men & women” rather than rely on being enshrined in law.

Aryeh Neier’s “Defending the Enemy” refutes “for me but not for thee” hypocrisy in free speech discourse. If you are surprised that a Jewish refugee of Nazi Germany could see the value in Neo Nazis’ free speech rights you need to read this classic.