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Reason, Carnival and Honour
- Author
- Matei Candea
- Narrator
- Matei Candea
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Publish Date
- 18 June 2026
- Run Time
- 9 hours 57 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
What does free speech really mean? How does our understanding of it differ around the world? Why does it divide us – and how can we find common ground?
What free speech really means is hotly contested. Is it increasingly under attack in our democracies, or is it being weaponized by the powerful? These debates don’t just happen in the news: they divide families, strain relationships. This is because, anthropologist Matei Candea shows, arguments about free speech are not just about abstract principles: they question what it means to be a good person, to have empathy and courage. They involve fears for the future and longings for the past – and they demand that you pick a side, right now!
In order to move away from the simple binaries of polarised debate, Candea shows us that we need to start counting to three. Deploying the power of thinking anthropologically, Reason, Carnival and Honour outlines three visions of free speech – Reason, or civil rational debate; Carnival, or the right to be outrageous; and Honour, the duty to stand by one’s word. Sometimes supporting each other and sometimes at odds, they entail very different understandings of what language is and does, of what it means to be free.
Building on years of research and an exploration of anthropological literature from around the globe – from tales of French cartoonists to Egyptian Bedouin women, Finnish talk-show hosts to Tibetan Buddhist monks – Reason, Carnival and Honour reveals a richer landscape of differences, to help us find new alliances and even answers to the question of what it is we’re really arguing about.
© Matei Candea 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
Critics Review
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Richly provocative … an important book that will open shuttered minds
Telegraph
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An insightful book which makes sense of free speech debates over the past decade. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to take seriously the claims they live by and, just as crucially, the claims of others
Matthew Engelke
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A fresh and thought-provoking analysis of what our battles over free speech are really about, and why they are so heated and intractable
Fara Dabhoiwala
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Anyone with a serious interest in these debates and controversies will want to read this book, and will find much to admire, provoke, amuse and surprise. It is a splendid vindication of anthropology’s capacity to address matters of wide concern in original ways
James Laidlaw
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A book like no other on free speech, Candea deftly sidesteps polarised debates, bringing an anthropologist's eye to what people really mean and, in doing so, offers fresh, illuminating ways to understand ourselves and one another
Alpa Shah
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Details
- Author
- Matei Candea
- Narrator
- Matei Candea
- Duration
- 9 hours 57 minutes
- Release Date
- 18 June 2026
- ISBN
- 9781837311835
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Genre
- Political control and freedoms, Social and cultural anthropology, Religion and politics, Society and culture: general
Synopsis
What does free speech really mean? How does our understanding of it differ around the world? Why does it divide us – and how can we find common ground?What free speech really means is hotly contested. Is it increasingly under attack in our democracies, or is it being weaponized by the powerful? These debates don’t just happen in the news: they divide families, strain relationships. This is because, anthropologist Matei Candea shows, arguments about free speech are not just about abstract principles: they question what it means to be a good person, to have empathy and courage. They involve fears for the future and longings for the past – and they demand that you pick a side, right now!In order to move away from the simple binaries of polarised debate, Candea shows us that we need to start counting to three. Deploying the power of thinking anthropologically, Reason, Carnival and Honour outlines three visions of free speech – Reason, or civil rational debate; Carnival, or the right to be outrageous; and Honour, the duty to stand by one’s word. Sometimes supporting each other and sometimes at odds, they entail very different understandings of what language is and does, of what it means to be free.Building on years of research and an exploration of anthropological literature from around the globe – from tales of French cartoonists to Egyptian Bedouin women, Finnish talk-show hosts to Tibetan Buddhist monks – Reason, Carnival and Honour reveals a richer landscape of differences, to help us find new alliances and even answers to the question of what it is we’re really arguing about.© Matei Candea 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026
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