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You Can't Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom Paperback – 19 Jan 2012

4.5 out of 5 stars 62 customer reviews

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Product details

  • Paperback: 330 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate (19 Jan. 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0007308906
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007308903
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.2 x 2.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 338,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Product Description

Review

‘Cohen is perhaps the most insightful, thought-provoking and entertaining political writer in Britain today, and comes from the honest tradition of English liberal thought that threads from John Milton to John Stuart Mill and George Orwell’ Telegraph, Ed West

‘Nick Cohen’s books are like the best Smiths songs; however depressing the content, the execution is so shimmering, so incandescent with indignation that the overall effect is transcendently uplifting’ Julie Burchill, Prospect

‘It is useful to have all this material in one place, particularly for the benefit of young people, who must be taught about previous disputes over free expression’ Hanif Kureishi, Independent

‘You can read this book, and you probably should’ Hugo Rifkind, The Spectator

‘Into the space vacated by the controversialist Christopher Hitchens we might recruit the sardonic, sceptical columnist Nick Cohen’ Iain Finlayson, The Times

‘Nick Cohen’s new book is a corrective to the tendency of internet utopians to think that the web has ushered in an “age of transparency” New Statesman

‘Writing with passion, wit and erudition, Cohen draws upon the spirit of Orwell and Milton in his call for a fightback against the onslaught on free speech’ Metro, 4 stars

‘You Can’t Read This Book. You can, OF COURSE. And you should. Cohen is right about everything that matters.’ Standpoint, Anthony Julius

About the Author

Nick Cohen is a journalist and commentator for the Observer and Evening Standard. He is also the author of ‘What’s Left’? – the most important and provocative commentaries on how the Left lost its way.


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Customer Reviews

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Format: Paperback
`Do you believe in free speech? Are you sure?' So asks Nick Cohen in this important and timely book. Through a combination of righteous indignation, mordant wit and searing polemic, he shows how the ideals of Milton, Mill and the Enlightenment - those of freedom of expression, conscience and the free, enquiring mind - are being undermined, indeed, deliberately attacked, by a derisory and intellectually inadequate group of religious fundamentalists, oppressive corporations, quack scientists, timid politicians and self-satisfied academics.

Cohen effortlessly takes us through some of the defining freedom of speech issues of our time: the Salman Rushdie and Danish cartoon affairs; the impressive figure of Ayaan Hirsi Ali throwing off the chains of obnoxious religious chauvinism only to encounter the gently ruminating herd of cloistered academia; the near-dictatorial conditions employees face the moment they step into the workplace, and the dangers faced by whistle-blowers in the face of managerial and bureaucratic incompetence; the absurd entity that is Britain's chiropractor lobby; and the vicious counter-attack against the liberating forces of the Internet, reminding us that oppressive nations are perfectly capable of utilising the net as well as its citizens.

Along every step of the way, as Cohen shows, there is seemingly always a constituency just waiting to be offended into action. Readers will already be familiar with perennially grumpy and stony-faced theocrats like the Ayatollah Khomeini, calling as he did for the assassination of a private citizen in a sovereign country for publishing a work of fiction which he had not read, and probably could not have read.
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Format: Paperback
This book is about freedom of speech.

The simplistic notion of "freedom" in liberal capitalist countries is a notion that has (quite properly) been contested over the years but (while acknowledging such debates) Nick Cohen argues persuasively that there really is a crucially important issue at stake here - whatever your other views on social justice.

But even those who might have always subscribed to Evelyn Beatrice Hall's "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"[Often mis-attributed to Voltaire], still need to read this book. YOU CAN'T READ THIS BOOK is not just some kind of woolly defence of liberal principles, it is a forensic (though highly readable) examination of an eclectic range of contemporary threats to our liberties. I had actually heard of nearly every case presented in this book, but I had no idea of the details and would have never thought to join these cases together in the single thread which Cohen spins. His book was a real eye-opener - even for people like me who try to walk around with their eyes fully open. There are moments when you find yourself thinking "what's he on about now", but in every case he succeeds expertly in tying the stories he presents back to his main thesis.

What is particularly illuminating, is the way Nick Cohen ties together different kinds of de jure and de facto constraints on free expression - from the behaviour of autocratic governments and religious zealots to that of private companies.

YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!
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Format: Paperback
Nick Cohen is the author of "Pretty Straight Guys" and "What's Left?: How the Left Lost its Way: How Liberals Lost Their Way."

His latest work, "You cannot read this book" is a chilling account of how Western civilisation has, largely through a failure to stand up to those who are willing to kill or threaten anyone who writes or publishes something they strongly disgree with, allowed it to become extremely difficult to publish certain types of idea, and that we voluntarily censor what we will write or allow others to write about certain subjects.

He also looks at the workings of the legal system in respect of libel cases and argues that the practice of using expensive libel actions to try to suppress the truth by claiming it is lies, of which the late and unlamented Robert Maxwell was the most notorious practitioner, is still far too easy and far too common.

He begins the book with a ruthlessly candid account of the controversy over Salman Rushdie's book, "The Satanic Verses" which concludes by suggesting it is very unlikely that any author of equivalent status to Rushdie would dare try to bring out a similar novel today, and that if someone did, it would be extremely difficult for them to find a publisher.
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