Dangerous Ideas
A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News
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Dangerous Ideas
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Narrated by:
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Tim Campbell
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Written by:
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Eric Berkowitz
About this listen
A fascinating examination of how restricting speech has continuously shaped our culture, and how censorship is used as a tool to prop up authorities and maintain class and gender disparities
Through compelling narrative, historian Eric Berkowitz reveals how drastically censorship has shaped our modern society. More than just a history of censorship, Dangerous Ideas illuminates the power of restricting speech; how it has defined states, ideas, and culture; and (despite how each of us would like to believe otherwise) how it is something we all participate in.
This engaging cultural history of censorship and thought suppression throughout the ages takes readers from the first Chinese emperor’s wholesale elimination of books, to Henry VIII’s decree of death for anyone who “imagined” his demise, and on to the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the volatile politics surrounding censorship of social media.
Highlighting the base impulses driving many famous acts of suppression, Berkowitz demonstrates the fragility of power and how every individual can act as both the suppressor and the suppressed.
©2021 Eric Berkowitz (P)2021 Beacon PressWhat the critics say
“[A] lively and wide-ranging history...[an] engrossing history of censorship.” (The Economist)
“Eric Berkowitz’s rollicking, entertaining book reminds us that ideas have always been contested and that censorship is undesirable and mostly counter-productive.”—The Australian
“In his captivating sprint through two millennia of censorship, Eric Berkowitz chronicles some of the more bizarre and egregious episodes, while explaining that the human instinct to suppress speech has rarely waned.”—Financial Times