Dangerous Ideas

A fascinating examination on 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.

The urge to censor is as old as the urge to speak. From the first Chinese emperor's wholesale elimination of books to the Vatican's suppression of pornography from its own collection, and on to the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the advent of Internet troll armies, words, images and ideas have always been hunted down by those trying to suppress them. In this compelling account, Eric Berkowitz reveals why and how humanity has, from the beginning, sought to silence itself. Ranging from the absurd - such as Henry VIII's decree of death for anyone who 'imagined' his demise - to claims by American slave owners that abolitionist literature should be supressed because it hurt their feelings, Berkowitz takes the reader on an unruly ride through history, highlighting the use of censorship to reinforce class, race and gender privilege and guard against offence. Elucidating phrases like 'fake news' and 'hate speech', Dangerous Ideas exposes the dangers of erasing history, how censorship has shaped our modern society and what forms it is taking today - and to what disturbing effects.

About the Author

Eric Berkowitz is a writer, lawyer and journalist. An active intellectual property, First Amendment and business litigator, he now maintains a public interest law practice where he represents victims of sexual violence seeking asylum in the United States, as well as young asylum applicants imprisoned at the US/Mexico border. Berkowitz has published investigative pieces in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, and has been published in the Washington Post and The Economist, among others. His publications include Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire and The Boundaries of Desire: A Century of Bad Laws, Good Sex, and Changing Identities. He lives in San Francisco.