What is so special about the human voice? The relationship between the ear and the voice is unique among the senses. While we cannot emit light or smell or flavour at will, we control, unconsciously or consciously, the sounds that come from our mouths. For this reason, many thinkers, most notably Freud, have seen the voice as the outward expression of the soul. Careful listening to the voices of others, it was felt, would lay bare your innermost fears and desires. But given such an intimate connection between hearing and speaking, what has been the fate of those born deaf? How have they found ways of communicating? Ree's book uses fable and anecdote to examine the extraordinary treatment through the ages of the mute in Western culture. In doing so he uncovers some wonderful stories: the conflict between those who used sign language and who sought a deaf homeland and the "oralists" of Britain and Germany, who believed that the deaf should be integrated into society by being taught how to speak. Ree spins these observations and stories together to create a new genre: philosophical history, which is neither a philosophy of what history is, nor a history of ideas. Rather, it attempts to write history from an accessibly philosophical point of view.