What is Areopagitica?
{{italictitle}} [[File:Areopagitica 1644bw gobeirne.png|200px|thumb|The first page of the first edition of Areopagitica.]] '''''Areopagitica''''' is a [[book]] written by English [[poet]] [[John Milton]] in 1644. He wrote it to protest against [[censorship]]. Its full title is ''Areopagitica: A speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England''. Today, his book is called a [[tract]]. In the tract, Milton tries to defend the [[freedom of expression]]. Today, many people see it as one of the best defenses of the [[freedom of press]] ever written. The tract is named after a speech by [[Isocrates]], a Greek [[speaker|orator]] of the 5th century. The [[Areopagus]] is a hill in [[Athens]], where many [[council]]s and [[tribunal]]s were held. Isocrates wanted to restore one of these tribunals when he wrote the speech. In the speech,Milton argued that the [[Licensing Order of 1643]] should be abolished; censorship had not been part of Greek or Roman societies. Milton uses many passages from the [[Bible]] to strengthen his argument. Milton had been censored himself when he tried to publish tracts which were in favor of allowing people to get [[divorce]]d. In ''Areopagitica'', Milton argues that the status that was there before had worked best: By this law, all publications needed an authors name or that of a publisher. According to Milton, it is easy to find the authors or the publishers with this system. So if anything [[libel]]ous is published, the books can still be destroyed after the fact. {{lit-stub}} [[Category:17th-century books]] [[Category:Non-fiction books]] [[Category:1640s works]]