"Silencing is a hot topic- both in academic philosophy and in the media; it is alleged to be an affront to free speech, a violation of individual freedom, a mechanism for further disenfranchising the already marginalized, an enemy to a well-functioning democracy, and spreading like wildfire. If these claims are true, then silencing is an important phenomenon that needs to be properly understood. That much is clear. What silencing is exactly; why it matters, what precisely is harmful about it, and what ought to be done in response to it are significantly less clear. On Silencing: What It Is and Why It Matters aims to remedy this and it does so in a clear, no-nonsense, and accessible manner. Understanding silencing as involving communication failure, On Silencing distinguishes between different forms of communication failure thus corresponding to three broad types of silencing. In addition to enabling the reader to decide for themselves what to make of the various issues explored, On Silencing also adds to the existing literatures by - among other things - renegotiating the dispute between intentionalism and conventionalism about speech acts, arguing that sincerity is sometimes speaker meant, demonstrating that whats called seriousness silencing isnt actually silencing at all, and illuminating both that and how false beliefs about dialects of American English contribute to all manner of silencing"--.