Rewriting the Past: How Cancel Culture Hinders Building the Future

Cancel culture is one of the vivid phenomena of our time, a practice of publicly boycotting individuals or organizations for statements or actions that the masses deem unacceptable. However, cancel culture can affect not only our contemporaries. In his book,... French philosopher and historian Pierre Vesperini demonstrates how those who seek to rewrite or erase ambiguous moments of the past prevent us from learning the lessons of history. Those who want to "cancel" Shakespeare, Woodrow Wilson, or Churchill, Vesperini argues, raise important questions but do not tolerate shades of grey and often arrive at erroneous conclusions. His book will help readers better understand the nature of modern social discourse and maintain the ability to critically reflect on history, and therefore consciously shape the future.