Dare to Speak : Defending Free Speech for All
Author(s): Suzanne Nossel
"A must read."—Margaret Atwood
A vital, necessary playbook for navigating and defending free speech today by the CEO of PEN America, Dare To Speak provides a pathway for promoting free expression while also cultivating a more inclusive public culture.
Online trolls and fascist chat groups. Controversies over campus lectures. Cancel culture versus censorship. The daily hazards and debates surrounding free speech dominate headlines and fuel social media storms. In an era where one tweet can launch—or end—your career, and where free speech is often invoked as a principle but rarely understood, learning to maneuver the fast-changing, treacherous landscape of public discourse has never been more urgent.
In Dare To Speak, Suzanne Nossel, a leading voice in support of free expression, delivers a vital, necessary guide to maintaining democratic debate that is open, free-wheeling but at the same time respectful of the rich diversity of backgrounds and opinions in a changing country. Centered on practical principles, Nossel’s primer equips readers with the tools needed to speak one’s mind in today’s diverse, digitized, and highly-divided society without resorting to curbs on free expression.
At a time when free speech is often pitted against other progressive axioms—namely diversity and equality—Dare To Speak presents a clear-eyed argument that the drive to create a more inclusive society need not, and must not, compromise robust protections for free speech. Nossel provides concrete guidance on how to reconcile these two sets of core values within universities, on social media, and in daily life. She advises readers how to:
- Use language conscientiously without self-censoring ideas;
- Defend the right to express unpopular views;
- And protest without silencing speech.
Nossel warns against the increasingly fashionable embrace of expanded government and corporate controls over speech, warning that such strictures can reinforce the marginalization of lesser-heard voices. She argues that creating an open market of ideas demands aggressive steps to remedy exclusion and ensure equal participation.
Replete with insightful arguments, colorful examples, and salient advice, Dare To Speak brings much-needed clarity and guidance to this pressing—and often misunderstood—debate.
Review(s):
“Should all speech be free? If not, who controls it? This brave, wise, succinct book is a must-read for writers, speakers, teachers, journalists, and, well, anyone who talks.”
“In our censorious age of easy outrage, when it’s harder than ever to defend our right to express contentious ideas, Suzanne Nossel remains convinced that bigotry and intolerance can be fought without giving way on the principle of free speech, and makes her case eloquently, and—even better—usefully. An authoritative, essential book.”
“To move forward as a country demands that we focus on how to talk and listen across vast differences of opinion, without shutting down others’ speech or closing our ears. Suzanne Nossel offers a much needed, cogent and compelling blueprint for reviving our stalled national conversation by helping all of us to speak, listen, and be heard.”
“As a prominent defender of outspoken wordsmiths, Suzanne Nossel knows a thing or two about free speech, and she makes a powerful case that freedom of expression is not just compatible but necessary for the advancement of equality and human rights.”
“In this courageous, inspiring, and pellucid book, Suzanne Nossel unpacks the complicated ambiguities that have accrued around free speech in America. Without ever being reductive, Nossel makes the arguments not only comprehensible, but also thrillingly urgent. Her call to defend our most basic liberty could not come at a more important time; it is a moral outcry against a pernicious injustice that grows ever more prevalent at home and abroad. It is written with wit, but is at its heart an earnest and optimistic call to action.”
“Exceedingly sane and thus indispensable.”
"In this essential volume, Suzanne Nossel passionately and convincingly argues for free speech, a liberty that is increasingly under attack throughout the world. Drawing on her experiences at the State Department and at PEN America, the author provides a critically important primer for those who seek to secure freedom of expression in our 'diverse, digitalized, and divided culture.'"
“With a clarity of conviction sharpened by years at the State Department and as the head of the leading literary organization on open speech, Suzanne Nossel offers us way to support free speech and also battle bigotry. Given the world's roiling cauldron of modern-day disinformation and old-fashioned xenophobia, Nossel's Dare to Speak provides a new path that is not both-sides-ism but intellectually and emotionally up to the challenges of our times.”
“With progressives decrying “microaggressions” and conservative denouncing “cancel culture,” the battle over free speech rages across modern America. Suzanne Nossel offers eminently sensible suggestions for deescalating tensions so that people of all viewpoints can speak their minds in a civil fashion. This is the rule book America needs to preserve a vibrant democracy in the 21st century.”
“An essential citizen guide to free speech. Nossel manages to not only illuminate with great insight the complex issues and moral stakes; she also provides a clear path forward.”
ISBN: 9780062966032