Areopagitica
by John Milton
Areopagitics: A Speech for the Freedom of the Licensed Press to the Parliament of the Parliament is John Milton's famous thesis against censorship. Named after the speech of the fifth-century BC Athenian orator Socrates, the work is considered one of the most effective and inspiring defenses of the right to freedom of expression in history. It's also a personal issue for Milton, who succumbed to censorship when he tried to publish his defenses against divorce, radical works that don't stay a quarter with censors. Milton's strong arguments against the 1643 Bachelor's Order, which are common as a pamphlet, state that classical Greek and Roman society has never been subjected to such censorship, and uses many classical and biblical references to support his argument.
