A fascinating examination of how restricting speech has continuously shaped our culture, and how - regardless of political leanings - every individual can act as both the suppressors and the suppressed
Through compelling narrative, historian Eric Berkowitz uses stories of the past to reveal the dangers of erasing history and how censorship has shaped our modern society. More than just a history of censorship, Dangerous Ideas illuminates the power of censorship, how it has shaped states, ideas, and culture, and (despite how each of would like to believe otherwise) it's 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 the Vatican's suppression of pornography from its own collection, to Henry VIII's decree of death for anyone who "imagined" his demise, and on to the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the troll armies that swarm critics of the Trump administration.
Highlighting the base impulses from many famous acts of suppression, scholar Eric Berkowitz demonstrates the fragility of power and how censorship is used as a tool to maintain the class and gender disparities of the status quo.
