A short history of American freethought

Susan Jacoby's history of freethought/secularism in the United States is important for two main reasons.

First, it's a reminder of the fact that so many significant contributions to our 'national character' have come from freethinkers and secularists. Whenever possible, American history has tried to ignore its Tom Paines, Robert Green Ingersolls, and Elizabeth Cady Stantons; and -- when the contributions are too large to ignore -- to try to turn its (Deist) Tom Jeffersons and (skeptic) Abe Lincolns retroactively into devout Christians. Jacoby isn't going to let anyone get away with such nonsense.

And second, it's an explanation of just why our Constitution calls for strict separation of church and state. Too many 'conservative' voices these days are trying to persuade us that the First Amendment wasn't all that radical; the truly revolutionary nature of our 'godless Constitution' is at risk of being flushed down the memory hole. Jacoby isn't about to allow _that_ to happen either, in this age of 'faith-based initiatives' and Ten Commandments cases.

Her history is quite readable and for the most part well researched. However, I'm deducting a star for her account of Herbert Spencer, which is grossly inaccurate and consists largely of repetitions of popular mischaracterizations of his thought. (For example, the real Herbert Spencer was very much in favor of charity and philanthropy, and he was a Lamarckian rather than a Darwinist.) Otherwise, her history is a breath of fresh air in the current cultural atmosphere.

Don't make the mistake of equating 'freethinkers' with 'atheists'. Quite a few freethinkers are indeed atheists or agnostics, but Jacoby is using the term in its traditional sense -- to include, for example, Deists, Unitarians, liberal Protestants, Quakers (especially Hicksites), members of unorthodox sects, liberal Jews, and generally anyone who forms religious/theological/philosophical beliefs without reliance on alleged supernatural revelation. ('Reason the only oracle of man', as Ethan Allen put it in the title of an undeservedly forgotten essay. And Jacoby is definitely on the side of 'reason' here; she gives no quarter to New Age nonsense.)

Likewise, a 'secularist' here is one who does not believe in looking beyond the present world for the foundations of moral/ethical guidance, not necessarily one who rejects all belief in a possible afterlife. ('One world at a time', as Henry David Thoreau once famously rebuked a religious inquirer.)

This isn't just a matter of word games; the fact that freethought and secularism include such a broad range of outlooks is crucial to understanding why current religious 'conservatives' are wrong to equate every historical reference to God with belief in orthodox Christianity. And this in turn bears on our interpretation of such founding documents as the Declaration of Independence -- which some conservative revisionists now want to read as a Christian document simply because (Deist) Thomas Jefferson makes reference therein to 'the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God'.

This fine book is, then, both notable for its reclamation of a forgotten (or deliberately disclaimed) side of U.S. history, and crucial for its contribution to current debates about the meaning and scope of the First Amendment.

Indeed, on the latter issue my main criticism is that Jacoby occasionally doesn't go far _enough_. For example, I think there are excellent grounds for believing that the Fourteenth Amendment was originally supposed to bind the state governments to the _entire_ Bill of Rights but was eviscerated by the Supreme Court in the Slaughter-House Cases, a problem which led in turn to the proposal of the (rejected) Blaine Amendment. Jacoby doesn't touch on this possibility and writes as though the Blaine Amendment was the first attempt to apply the First Amendment to state governments since Madison's rejected proposal at the Constitutional Convention.

Well done, though, and (except for the few pages on Spencer) clearly the result of careful thought and study. Highly recommended.

A 'MUST READ' for all Americans.

This is easily the most rewarding and informative book I have ever read. I would strongly reccomend this book to anyone living in the United States of America. For the liberal Christian and for practitioners of minority faiths, this book offers a full historical understanding of the American concept of freedom of religion. For American Brights, here can be found forgotten heroes and a rich, proud, often misunderstood tradition of secularism, shown in it's proper setting as one of the founding principles of this great nation. Few will regret the time spent reading this unbiased history. Only the most closed minded fundamentalist can fail to apreciate it.

A Must For True American History & Secularism Adherents

With this well researched book, Susan Jacoby has given an immense amount of justice and definition to American Secularism and those icons of our founding fathers who were wise enough to understand and insist on a separation of church and state as a basis of our way of government.

Other positive reviews have done a fine job of pointing out in length, the many good details found in this book, so I'll utilize some important thoughts borrowed from the front inside DJ flap and back cover.

"At a time when 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 secular activism..." "Moving from nineteenth-century abolitionism and suffragism through the twentieth-centuries civil liberties, civil rights, and feminist movements, Freethinkers illuminates the neglected accomplishments of...such iconic figures as Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Clarence Darrow...Robert Green Ingersoll, `the great agnostic'- Freethinkers restores to history generations of dedicated humanist champions."

"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 Jacoby's `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 the lungs of those who defend the separation of church and state. Here, clearly written and without apologetics, is the noble record of the long struggle to retain America's precious freedom of conscience, her pride for centuries, now under threat from the political Right as never before."- Arthur Miller

"At a time when a U.S. president divides the world into good and evil and claims God's approval for his foreign adventures, we need Susan Jacoby's lively history of the remarkable tradition of American freethought more than ever."- Adam Hochschild, author of 'King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa".

Good and accurate summations! And, Thank you, Susan Jacoby!