Tiago Flora

Precient but deeply flawed

Revisado: 08-31-22

In 2022, much of what the author says about Russian politics and its government's mindset is obvious truth if only in hindsight. He goes into valuable detail on the fascist ideas that became popular in the high echelons of Russian politics since Putin came to power.

When it comes to extending his analyses to the West, the book misses. Much of it is abstraction with a progressive bias, while the more valuable insights lie on the details of the Russian information war on the West. The ending is particularly disappointing, as questionable common statistics on inequality are mentioned as part of a weak argument that the United States is becoming more like Russia as a function of that inequality. Very little attention is paid to how much Europe enabled Russian aggression for two decades.

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Thorough account of the handover

Revisado: 07-28-22

The title shines at providing the history of the Hong Kong handover from the Thatcher years to July 1, 1997. It does very well in illustrating the "psychological chasm" between the Chinese Communist Party, Hong Kongers, and British colonial officers, which explains much of the attitudes toward HK democracy on global display since 2019.

The narrator did a splendid job at communicating the subject with the gravitas it deserves.

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A reaffirmation of a key fundamental right

Revisado: 02-15-22

The author does a fantastic job at documenting the conception and application of a right to free speech from Athenian democracy to the 21st century.

The first two thirds of the book are an informative history of the philosophical, legal, and practical contexts for speech in Ancient Greece, Rome, medieval and modern Europe and the Middle East, and the American colonies/United States. It brings detail to the evolution of free speech and the press in the West in particular.

If you follow international news on democratic backsliding, most of the last few chapters of the book won't give you that much new information. Those are nonetheless a vivid and chilling reminder of the threats free speech faces today in the developed and developing world alike, and why we should not let barriers to speech be raised.

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Amazing performance for a great story

Revisado: 08-16-21

Andy Serkis has become my favorite audiobook narrator with just this single title. Every character is given a personality even more from his voice than from the book's descriptions. I'm now looking forward to the release of the LotR trilogy narrated by him in September.

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