Nick Cohen - You Can’t Read This Book - Censorship in an Age of Freedom

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Fourth Estate

This revised edition published by Fourth Estate 2013

Copyright © Nick Cohen 2012, 2013

The right of Nick Cohen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 978000751850

Ebook Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN: 9780007436453

Version: 2017-03-27

For Christopher Hitchens

(1949–2011)

There is an all-out confrontation between the ironic and the literal mind: between every kind of commissar and inquisitor and bureaucrat and those who know that, whatever the role of social and political forces, ideas and books have to be formulated and written by individuals.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

CONTENTS

Title Page NICK COHEN You Can’t Read This Book Censorship in an Age of Freedom

Copyright Copyright Fourth Estate An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Fourth Estate This revised edition published by Fourth Estate 2013 Copyright © Nick Cohen 2012, 2013 The right of Nick Cohen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication Source ISBN: 978000751850 Ebook Edition © MARCH 2013 ISBN: 9780007436453 Version: 2017-03-27

Dedication For Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011)

Epigraph There is an all-out confrontation between the ironic and the literal mind: between every kind of commissar and inquisitor and bureaucrat and those who know that, whatever the role of social and political forces, ideas and books have to be formulated and written by individuals. CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Introduction

PART ONE: GOD

1. ‘Kill the Blasphemer’

Rules for Censors (1): Demand a Respect You Don’t Deserve

2. A Clash of Civilisations?

Rules for Censors (2): A Little Fear Goes a Long, Long Way

3. Manufacturing Offence

Rules for Censors (3): Go Postal!

4. The Racism of the Anti-Racists

Rules for Censors (4): Say that it is Bigoted to Oppose Bigotry

How to Fight Back: John Milton and the Absurdity of Identity Politics

PART TWO: MONEY

5. The Cult of the Supreme Manager

Rules for Censors (5): People Don’t Want to Know

6. A Town Called Sue

Rules for Censors (6): Money Makes You a Member of a Master Race

How to Fight Back: John Stuart Mill and the Struggle to Speak Your Mind

PART THREE: STATE

7. The Internet and the Revolution

Rules for Censors (7): Look to the Past/Think of the Future

8. The Internet and the Counter-Revolution

How to Fight Back: Advice for Free-Speaking Citizens

Keep Reading

Notes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Nick Cohen

About the Publisher

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