Freedom of speech, 1500-1850

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This book presents historical reappraisals of freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the early modern Anglophone world. Prompted by modern debates about whether limitations on free expression might be necessary given religious pluralism and concerns about hate speech, it brings together historians, political theorists and literary scholars, offering a longue durée approach to the topic. The book integrates religion into the history of free speech and rethinks what is sometimes regarded as a coherent tradition of more-or-less absolutist justifications for free expression. Contributors examine the aims and effectiveness of government policies, the sometimes messy and contingent ways in which freedom of speech became a reality, and a wide range of canonical and non-canonical texts in which contemporaries outlined their ideas and ideals. They show that - on this issue at least - the period from 1500 to 1850 is a coherent one, in terms of how successive governments reflected on the possibility of regulation, and of the kinds of claims that were and were not made for freedom of speech. While not denying that changes can be detected, in both ideas and practices, the book demonstrates that the issues, arguments and aims involved were more or less distinct from those that characterise modern debates. Freedom of speech, 1500-1850 will appeal to religious and political historians, intellectual historians and literary scholars, as well as anyone interested in the history of one of the most important and thorny issues in modern society.