Freedom of Speech The History of an Idea

The essays in this volume portray the public debates concerning freedom of speech in the 18th century in France and Britain as well as Austria, Denmark, Russia, and Spain and its American territories. The economic integration of Europe and its offshoots over the past three centuries into a distinctive cultural product, the West, has given rise to a triumphant universalist narrative that masks these disparate national contributions to freedom of speech and other liberal rights.