Dangerous Ideas: A Brief History of Censorship in the West, from the Ancients to Fake News

by Eric Berkowitz

Like most political censorship throughout history, observes the scholar Lois Mai Chan, Qin’s book burning “proved to be, rather than a condemnation, a recognition of the power of knowledge.”

but the longstanding tension remained between the ideals of free speech and the urge to prevent the harms that words can cause.

This is the paradox: censorship violates our natural rights, yet it has always been a pervasive element of social reality—in the psyches of individuals no less than of dictators.