Soyica Diggs Colbert— On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech at an Independence Day celebration that asked, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” His question troubles America’s founding democratic myths and the idea that July 4, 1776 marks a day of freedom. For the enslaved,
Robert Louis Wilken— To understand how religious freedom came to be cherished as a fundamental human right, the story must begin long before the Enlightenment and the development of modern political ideas and institutions. Its origins are not political but religious, and its history is a tale of inwardness, of
Timothy Garton Ash— The fact that most states in the world have signed international treaties guaranteeing freedom of expression, and make such promises in their constitutions, does not answer the question: why should speech be free? As soon as we start trying to hold governments to their word, or debate
Benjamin N. Lawrance— March 9 marks the 174th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision U.S. v Amistad, one of the most celebrated U.S. “freedom suits.” Since the case’s conclusion in 1841, the charismatic leadership of Cinqué (Sengbe Pieh) and the rhetorical prowess of former President John Quincy Adams and others
New technologies have brought us to a critical moment of transition. Will markets, social relationships, and democracy ever be the same again? Yale University Press author Yochai Benkler will be giving a free public talk about the ideas in his new book, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms