Jacoby spoke with Beliefnet about Americas secular beginnings, freethought heroes. Rich with such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Paine, and the once-famous Robert Green Ingersoll, Freethinkers restores to history the passionate humanists who struggled against those who would undermine the combination of secular government and religious liberty that is the glory of the American system. Jacobys latest book is Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.

Moving from nineteenth-century abolitionism and suffragism through the twentieth century's civil liberties, civil rights, and feminist movements, Freethinkers illuminates the neglected achievements of secularists who, allied with tolerant believers, have led the battle for reform in the past and today. Balm for doubting Thomasesand a welcome addition to American cultural history. In impassioned, elegant prose, celebrated author Susan Jacoby traces more than two hundred years of secularist activism, beginning with the fierce debate over the omission of God from the Constitution. 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 right’s attempts to sacralize decisions on such matters as biomedical research.

Combine Editions Susan Jacoby’s books Average rating: 4. The most recent of her seven previous books is The Age of American Unreason. Los Angeles Times Book Review 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. Susan Jacoby is an independent scholar and best-selling author.

Jacoby accomplishes her task with clarity, thoroughness, and an engaging passion.

Freethinkers jacoby