What Is Free Speech?
What Is Free Speech? by Fara Dabhoiwala is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including The Guardian, for a Consensus Score of 16 out of 100.
Appears on these lists
Our take
AI-draftedDabhoiwala's provocation is that free speech is not an ancient philosophical inheritance but a comparatively recent invention, one that emerged in the early eighteenth century entangled with commerce, print capitalism, and the self-interest of the powerful rather than a pure pursuit of truth. That framing has drawn both admiration for its global sweep and pushback from historians who think he understates older philosophical roots of the idea.
In the press
“As history, What is Free Speech? is disappointing”
Jonathan Sumption, Literary Review
How the Consensus Score is calculated
Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.
| Source | Authority | Recency | Award | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Guardian | 0.85 | 0.85 | 1.00× | 0.72 |
| Weighted sum → Score | 0.72 → 16 | |||
Similar consensus books
Because they appear on some of the same lists.
Frequently asked
What lists is What Is Free Speech? on?
What Is Free Speech? appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including The Guardian.
What is its Consensus Score?
What Is Free Speech? has a Consensus Score of 16 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.