Milton and the modern media

A defence of a free press

John Milton and Granville Williams, B&D, 6-8 Church Street, Church, Lancashire BB5 4LF, 108 pages, paperback, £4.00

Best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, John Milton was also a passionate advocate of free speech. This book contains his pamphlet Areopagitica, written around the start of the Civil War in opposition to the state licensing of England's printing presses, and pairs it with an essay setting out levels of censorship in both the 1640s and the present day.

Although long-winded, Areopagitica argues passionately and thoroughly for "the liberty of unlicens'd printing", believing it best for people to decide for themselves what is worth reading. Milton urges: "Let [Truth] and falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?"

Some explanation of Milton's classical and biblical references would have been beneficial, and the review of recent restrictions on freedom of expression could have been better integrated with Milton's arguments, but this is a valuable reprinting of an important and relevant work.