NEW FROM PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS · SEPTEMBER 2026
How to Speak Freely: An Ancient Guide to Free Speech and Dissent.
“A vivid, elegant, and intellectually stimulating translation of the text that created the world’s first martyr for free speech: Fontaine reminds us how much Socrates, and the ancients generally, still have to say about censorship, dissent, and the courage to speak one’s mind.”
—Jacob Mchangama
Founder and Executive Director, The Future of Free Speech
Author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media
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Michael Fontaine is a classicist, author, and public speaker. A professor at Cornell University and director of the Program on Freedom and Free Societies, he writes about free speech, humor, persuasion, and the enduring lessons of Greece and Rome.
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Books
Michael Fontaine 
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