Nonfiction · 1644
Areopagitica
A Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England
A single, unbroken oration addressed directly to Parliament, arguing that a free press — open to the "promiscuous" hazard of good ideas and bad alike — does more to advance truth and virtue than any system of government pre-approval ever could, and that the very attempt to license which books may be printed insults the reason of a free people.
John Milton published Areopagitica in 1644, unlicensed himself in open defiance of the licensing order it opposed, in response to Parliament's own 1643 act requiring government approval before publication; addressed to Parliament and modeled on classical Athenian oratory (the title refers to the Areopagus, the hill on which Athens's ruling council met), it remains one of the most influential arguments ever made for freedom of the press.
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About the author
1608–1674 · 17th Century
John Milton (1608–1674) was born in London and educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. He wrote prose pamphlets on divorce, censorship and, after the execution of Charles I, a people's right to depose a tyrant, and served as Secretary for Foreign Tongues in Cromwell's government from 1649. He was completely blind by 1652, which did not stop him: Paradise Lost (1667), dictated over several years to a series of amanuenses, appeared after the Restoration had put him briefly in danger of execution for his service to the Commonwealth. Paradise Regained and the tragedy Samson Agonistes followed together in one volume in 1671. He died in London.
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