If you love our modern society, you can thank this guy.

If you hate our modern society, you can also blame this guy.

But the one thing that you cannot possibly do is ignore this guy.

This guy would be John Stuart Mill.

This month we are reading his most famous work on Liberty.

I'm Michael Knowles.

This is the book club.

And I'm joined by Joe Fornieri, a professor of political science at RIT, the author of a number of books on

Abraham Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's political faith, Abraham Lincoln philosopher-statesman.

He's working on a new book about Frederick Douglass.

You're also the director of the center for, I'm going to see if I get this right, statesmanship,

law and liberty. Liberty. How could I forget liberty? It's the title of the book. You're correct.

It was inspired by Mel. Thank you for coming on the show. Yeah, I'm delighted. Delighted to be here.

I always task the guest with summing up the book, for those who perhaps did not read the whole thing on time,

summing it up in 60 seconds.

The purpose of the book is to find a principle that will limit the authority of the state

and society over individuals. Mills particularly troubled about tyranny of the majority, so not only the

danger of state interference with one's personal liberty, but also the prevailing opinion and

the danger of conformity and self-censorship. Censorship, the evil is twofold. If the opinion is true,

you're depriving this generation and future generations of the truth, which is necessary to

advance societal progress. But even if it's wrong, you deprive society and the individual of a clearer perception and livelier

impression of the truth. And part of Mills' defense of human individualism and dignity is you have

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