Free speech is under attack at colleges and universities today, with critics on and off campus challenging the value of open inquiry and freewheeling intellectual debate. Too often speakers are shouted down, professors are threatened, and classes are disrupted. In Speak Freely, Keith Whittington argues that universities must protect and encourage free speech because vigorous free speech is the lifeblood of the university. Without free speech, a university cannot fulfill its most basic, fundamental, and essential purposes, including fostering freedom of thought, ideological diversity, and tolerance.
Examining such hot-button issues as trigger warnings, safe spaces, hate speech, disruptive protests, speaker disinvitations, the use of social media by faculty, and academic politics, Speak Freely describes the dangers of empowering campus censors to limit speech and enforce orthodoxy. It explains why free speech and civil discourse are at the heart of the university’s mission of creating and nurturing an open and diverse community dedicated to learning. It shows why universities must make space for voices from both the left and right. And it points out how better understanding why the university lives or dies by free speech can help guide everyone—including students, faculty, administrators, and alumni—when faced with difficult challenges such as unpopular, hateful, or dangerous speech.
Timely and vitally important, Speak Freely demonstrates why universities can succeed only by fostering more free speech, more free thought—and a greater tolerance for both.
Awards and Recognition
- Winner of the 2019 PROSE Award in Education (Practice and Theory), Association of American Publishers
"Involve[s] readers in the pleasures of confronting a difficult problem, treating the dangerous views of determined adversaries with an open mind and proceeding with greater confidence as a result. This summer, Speak Freely will be distributed to every Princeton freshman for consideration and discussion. That’s a start."—Jonathan Marks, Wall Street Journal
"A fresh foray into the campus culture wars."—Robert Simpson, Times Literary Supplement
"A timely defense of intellectual debate and critical thinking. . . . In the current divisive political climate, Whittington shows why safeguarding the civil exchange of diverse ideas is an urgent need."—Kirkus
"[A] sophisticated and coolheaded defense of free speech."—Peter Berkowitz, Real Clear Politics
"[Keith Whittington’s] book provides a cogent and compelling analysis of the ‘troubling currents swirling through college campuses'. . . . Speak Freely supplies clarity and good sense to a subject that has been receiving a lot more heat than light. . . . Mr. Whittington adds a timely plea to every American, inside and outside of the academy, to give more attention and support to the foundational principles of teaching and research."—Glenn C. Altschuler, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Keith E. Whittington has written the best of the recent books on free speech and higher education."—James Stoner, Law and Liberty
"This is an important and robust book."—Paradigm Explorer
"No other book so accessibly presents the fundamental principles of the free speech tradition and applies them to contemporary campus controversies—ranging from the heckling or disinviting of campus speakers to attempts to censure faculty for social media postings. A compelling defense of the university as an enclave of reason, Speak Freely is fresh, illuminating, galvanizing, and persuasive."—Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center and George Washington University Law School
"If John Stuart Mill were around today, this is the book he might write about the free speech crisis on college campuses. Keith Whittington drills deep beneath the law and the excesses of political correctness to explain why universities’ foremost mission is to make and spread knowledge, even at the cost of discomfort, offense, or pain. At a time when many universities have lost their way, Speak Freely exemplifies the clarity, civility, and compassion that they—and we—so badly need."—Jonathan Rauch, author of Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought
"Freedom of speech is crucial to the university and democracy. Keith Whittington provides a deep exploration of the reasons why—and carefully examines contemporary challenges on college campuses."—David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute and author of The Libertarian Mind
"An astute, crucial reminder that free speech and a diversity of perspectives are necessary prerequisites for a vibrant intellectual life. Whittington’s persuasive case for both comes at a critical time for all members of the university community, as well as our larger society. Speak Freely is essential reading for everyone who is concerned about higher education and intellectual freedom."—Nadine Strossen, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship
"Speak Freely is a thoughtful and compelling account of how colleges and universities came to embrace the value of free expression as central to their mission, why they should remain faithful to that value in the face of current controversies, and how they should best approach and address these issues. Carefully reasoned, balanced, and persuasive, this book will be a valuable guide for anyone who wants to better understand what's at stake in today’s disputes over free speech on campus."—Geoffrey Stone,,University of Chicago Law School
