Susan Jacoby - Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism

An authoritative history of the vital role of secularist thinkers and activists in the United States, from a writer of fierce intelligence and nimble, unfettered imagination (The New York Times)At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers offers a powerful defense of the secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason.In impassioned, elegant prose, celebrated author Susan Jacoby paints a striking portrait of more than two hundred years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution. Moving from nineteenth-century abolitionism and suffragism through the twentieth centurys civil liberties, civil rights, and feminist movements, Freethinkers illuminates the neglected accomplishments of secularists who, allied with liberal and tolerant religious believers, have stood at the forefront of the battle for reforms opposed by reactionary forces in the past and today.Rich with such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Clarence Darrowas well as once-famous secularists such as Robert Green Ingersoll, the Great AgnosticFreethinkers restores to history generations of dedicated humanists. It is they, Jacoby shows, who have led the struggle to uphold the combination of secular government and religious liberty that is the glory of the American system. Susan Jacoby, an award-winning independent scholar, is the author of six previous books, including Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge, a New York Times Notable Book and Pulitzer Prize finalist. A contributor to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsday, Harpers, Vogue, and The New Republic, among other publications, she lives in New York City. A Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2004At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers celebrates the noble and essential secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason.In impassioned, elegant prose, Susan Jacoby offers a powerful defense of more than two hundred years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution. Moving from nineteenth-century abolitionism and suffragism through the twentieth-centurys civil liberties, civil rights, and feminist movements, Freethinkers illuminates the neglected accomplishments of secularists who, allied with tolerant and liberal religious believers, have stood at the forefront of the battle for social reforms opposed by reactionaries in the past and today.Rich with such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Clarence Darrowas well as once-famous secularists such as Robert Green Ingersoll, the Great AgnosticFreethinkers restores to history generations of dedicated humanist champions. It is they, Jacoby shows, who have led the struggle to uphold the unique combination of secular government and religious liberty that is and always has been the glory of the American system. A Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2004In view of the tide of religiosity engulfing a once secular republic, it is refreshing to be reminded by Freethinkers that free thought and skepticism are robustly in the American tradition. After all, the Founding Fathers began by omitting God from the American Constitution.Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Ardent and insightful, Ms. Jacoby seeks to rescue a proud tradition [of secularism in America] from the indifference of posterity. Her title was shrewdly chosen. Freethinker is what rebels against spiritual authority once called themselves, and it ennobles the breed with, if shell excuse the term, the holiest adjective in the lexicon of American politics. Her pantheon of skeptics includes names like Jefferson, Paine, Darrow, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, author of The Womans Bible that ridiculed the sexism of the apostles. And she rediscovers such figures as Robert Ingersoll, the Gilded Age orator who drew huge audiences with calls for a religion of humanity that would venerate only inquiry, investigation, and thought . . . Ms. Jacoby is no polemicist. She appreciates the pull of religionas community and creedwhile criticizing her own side for taking refuge in rational disdain. Beliefs, she knows, cannot promote themselves.Michael Kazin, The New York TimesA gutsy, passionate, intelligent book . . . [Jacobys] discussion of Abraham Lincolns . . . confusion over religious belief is a forceful, unexpectedly poignant one. She reminds us that now largely forgotten heroes such as the agnostic Robert Green Ingersoll, more passionate and persevering in his beliefs than most, show us how to maintain a mutual respect for opponents . . . Invaluable . . . A must read for those interested in the ways our nations most cherished traditions of freedom evolvedand as a reminder of what is at stake in protecting that legacy.Laura Claridge, Boston GlobeIn lucid and witty prose, Jacoby has uncovered the hidden history of secular America.Christopher Hitchens, The Washington Post Book WorldLively . . . A readable chronicle of the ebb and flow of American commitment to the divorce between political and religious authority.Scott McLemee, Newsday[Jacoby] accomplishes her task with clarity, thoroughness, and an engaging passion.Edward Lazarus, The Los Angeles TimesIn view of the tide of religiosity engulfing a once secular republic, it is refreshing to be reminded by Freethinkers that free thought and skepticism are robustly in the American tradition. After all, the Founding Fathers began by omitting God from the American Constitution.Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. In the best of all possible Americas every college freshman would be required to take a course called The History of American Secularism. The text would be Susan Jacobys Freethinkers, as necessary a book as could be published in the fourth year of the ministry of George W. Bush.Philip Roth This book is fresh air for those who defend the separation of church and state. Here, clearly written and without apologetics, is the noble record of the struggle to retain Americas precious freedom of conscience, her pride for two centuries, now under threat from the political Right as never before.Arthur MillerFreethinkers is not only a good book, it is also a necessary one. This dramatic study offers a welcome reminder that the Founding Fathers were intent on keeping church and state firmly separated. Lively, impassioned, and impartial, Susan Jacobys argument deserves more than respect; it deserves support.Peter Gay, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale UniversityAt a time when a U.S. president divides the world into good and evil and claims Gods approval for his foreign adventures, we need Susan Jacobys lively history of the remarkable tradition of American freethought more than ever.Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopolds Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa This thoroughly informed and gripping narrative reveals the moral and political importance of the secular tradition to a free people. In light of recent events, the book arrives at an opportune time for humanists and the religious alike.Norman Dorsen, president, American Civil Liberties Union (1976-1991)Susan Jacoby reminds us of one of our finest American traditions. With this striking and meticulous work, she has rescued the historic force of freethinking from political oblivion. Let us hope that this book points to a more rational future.Susan Brownmiller, author of Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape[This book] reclaims a key facet of American culture, secularism, or freethinking, the belief that public good is based on human reason and human rights rather than divine authority, a concept codified in the Constitutions separation of church and state. Veteran author Jacoby feels that now is the perfect time for a thorough reexamination of Americas secular tradition because, as she documents, it is being severely eroded by the politics of the Christian Right. Her cogent and engaging narrative presents myriad neglected yet significant historical episodes and compelling profiles of such clarion freethinkers as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Paine, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Walt Whitman, and John F. Kennedy. Jacoby reveals how the abolitionist and womens rights movements, archetypal freethinking efforts, challenged orthodox religious institutions as obstacles to social reform, and she dissects the churchs role in organized censorship and negative impact on public education, especially its opposition to the teaching of evolution. As Jacoby critiques the rise of religious correctness and tracks President Bushs assault on the line between church and state, she reminds readers that humanist values are the bedrock of democracy. Enlightening, invigorating, and responsibly yet passionately argued, Jacobys unparalleled history of American secularism offers a much needed perspective on todays most urgent social issues.Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)Is America really one nation under God? Not according to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Susan Jacoby, who argues that it is Americas secularist freethinkers who formed the bedrock upon which our nation was built. Jacoby contends that its one of the great unresolved paradoxes that religion occupies such an important place in a nation founded on separation of church and state. She traces the role of freethinkers, a term first coined in the 17th century, in the formation of America from the writing of the Constitution to some of our greatest social revolutions, including abolition, feminism, labor, civil rights, and the dawning of Darwins theory of evolution. Jacoby has clearly spent much time in the library, and the result is an impressive literary achievement filled with an array of both major and minor figures from American history, like revolutionary propagandist Thomas Paine, presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Robert Green Ingersoll. Her historical work is further flanked by current examplesthe Bush White House in an introduction and the views of conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia in the final chapterthat crystallize her concern over secularisms waning influence . . . Jacoby has done yeomans work in crafting her message that the values of Americas freethinkers belong at the center, not the margins of American life.Publishers WeeklyA lively history of American antispiritualism, with a stellar cast. The first six presidents of the United States did not invoke the blessings of the deity as frequently in their entire public careers as President Bush does each month, writes freelance journalist Jacoby. Bless their innocent souls, those six presidents took the constitutional separation of church and state seriously, even as a couple of themJefferson and Madisonharbored deistic notions (God may not be dead, but hes probably not well) that weighed against their invoking the divinity. Jacoby hails Thomas Paine as our exemplary revolutionary secularist, omitting God whenever he could as certain compatriots in the new U.S. worried that unless the chief executive took an oath to some organized Protestant church, a Turk, a Jew, a Roman Catholic, and what is worse than all, a Universalist, may be President of the United States, as one speaker at the Massachusetts constitutional convention put it. Jacoby examines the opaque religious beliefs of the Founders, recalling that Jefferson excited opposition in the 1800 presidential campaign for his apparent indifference to religion, as well as his remark that it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. She enlists Abe Lincoln in the secularist roll, although some scholars will object. She traces the origins of state mottos like In God We Trust and one nation under God, the one a sop to clerics during the Civil War, the other one of a new, bland, and compulsory set of quasi-religious rituals meant to serve as a Cold War repudiation of Soviet atheism. Jacoby closes by remarking that although the line between church and state now seems to be fading, most Americans regard that separation as desirable and oppose the religious rights attempts to sacralize decisions on such matters as biomedical research. Balm for doubting Thomasesand a welcome addition to American cultural history.Kirkus Reviews