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Title: Freethinkers : A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby ISBN: 0-8050-7442-2 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 05 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Informative and gripping
Comment: This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how the First Amendment protections of and from religion came about and have been interpreted and enforced (or not enforced) over the course of our history.
Jacoby does an excellent job of documenting and explaining the development not just of the secular point of view, but of the religious opinions freethinkers were up against in their times, and what the stakes were (and are) at each point.
Jacoby does a good job of debunking the religious right's assertions that it was religion that inspired the abolition and civil rights movements, when in fact both were made up evenly of religious and non-religious people. She also documents the rifts that religious and non-religious members of the women's rights movement experienced that set the movement back, and documents how the women's rights movement not only increased women's participation in society, but also weakened religion's hold on women, and how this was and is essential in winning (and maintaining) women's key rights.
Jacoby also delves into the religious (or not, depending on your take of her analysis) views of American political heroes Jefferson, Madison, Paine, John F. Kennedy, and Lincoln. It's important to describe that some of our most famous leaders and founders were, at best, ambivalent about religion. Jefferson's and Madison's views are especially important as writers of our DOI and Constitution. Their private writings indicate that they did indeed desire a "wall" between church and state, and lobbied in support of it.
Jacoby's last great analysis is of how throughout American history, anyone expressing unorthodox religious or political beliefs was denounced in pulpits all over the country as a god-hater, and therefore an America-hater. Whether you believed government should not support religious schools, slaves should be set free, women should be allowed to vote, workers should be allowed to unionize, industries should be regulated, evolution should be taught to children, or that black people should be able to share public facilities with whites, there were always a majority of religious figures ready and willing to accuse you of destroying the country and its morals, and individuals usually had to dissent from their own congregations to support equality, free speech, scientific knowledge and social justice.
Overall, my only criticism is that Jacoby set herself such a task that she had to only scrape the tip of the iceberg for each of her analyses. Fortunately, she includes a bibliography for advanced study. This book is a breath of fresh air in a climate that has been oversaturated with books either overstating religion's role in good movements or completing forgetting religion's role in keeping people poor, ignorant, and oppressed. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 4
Summary: A History Needs to be Built. This is a Good Cornerstone
Comment: Susan Jacoby's book, "Freethinkers" is a superb cornerstone needed to build a better history of America's secular traditions and strengths. Jacoby traces the Freethinking movement (which to her consists of individuals who are generally not motivated by a deity in their personal and political decisionmaking and who work to maintain a government aloof from questions regarding religion) from the nation's founding up to modern times.
The author provides a link from our founders, including Thomas Paine, through Robert Ingersoll--one of the greatest spokesperson on living a life unfettered from dogma--to the modern era. There is much to commend in this book: she shows how Freethinkers were significant contributors to the anti-slavery and women's movements. Her sections on Ingersoll, the 20th century struggle for secular public schools, and the 60's civil rights movement are also excellent. Although Jacoby is, like this reader, a "godless infidel", I appreciated her determination to avoid polemics and to provide balance to her subjects. She also provides some criticisms of the tactics used by modern secularists who rely upon court decisions but tend to ignore the court of public opinion.
The contributors to our secular and democratic state, and the powerful history of Humanists, atheists and agnostics in our country, cannot be condensed into one book, and I hope Jacoby's efforts inspire others to take up her narrative. We need to learn more about the "forty-eighters" who came to America after the failed European 19th century revolutions, and who contributed to the Union army and to our society. And selfishly perhaps, I would have appreciated if Susan Jacoby's book had more about Felix Adler and the Ethical Culture Movement, a movement that blossomed in the era of Freethought and expanded to Austria and Germany. While Ethical Societies thrive to this day in the United States, they could not survive Nazi oppression in Europe. She also does not discuss the Humanist Manifesto or Freethought contribution to the Arts.
I recommend this book to all those interested in our history, and in the history of religion in the United States. I also hope many will be inspired to write more on our missing history, so that all may learn of these nearly forgotten heroes.
Rating: 4
Summary: A missing piece of history!
Comment: This book is one that tries to fill in a bit of missing history - missing, that is, in our highly charged and politicized culture. Contra those whos would have us believe that 'secularlists' and others who held non-conventional views on religious matters have been a force of evil in this country, Mrs. Jacoby shows that if anything, 'secularists' have quite a robust and proud history. We - yes, I am a secularist - have been as active a part of this country's history and direction as religious folk and, as Mrs. Jacoby argues in this engaging work, that history has been largely for the good.
Many have taken Mrs. Jacoby to be saying more than, I think, she is. By 'freethinker,' many assume 'atheist.' Mrs. Jacoby's use of the term is a bit broader; a freethinker is one who holds highly unconventional (in a literal sense) view on religion - from those who are out-and-out atheists, to deists, to - at this country's inception - universalists.
The point, rather, is to show that from its inception, this country has been founded on a radical idea; that government need not be 'under god;' it can remain secular (the word 'civil' was used during the founding to connote a non-sectarian government). From the founding (and I did find her arguments a little less than convincing) she moves on to a chapter on deist Thomas Paine, on the woman's movement (particularly Stanton and Anthony's agnosticism), the growth of secularism during the 20'S and 30's, and the battle with religion - particularly Catholicism - that it has fostered to this very day.
In a review that secularist Christopher Hitchens wrote, he criticized Jacoby for her seemingly exclusive linking of 'freethinking' with left-liberal causes. After reading the book, I think that in part this is justified. The dominant force in established religion has been Catholicism and Catholicism has always been (with few exceptions) conservative. It is undeniable that by history's lights, secularism generally HAS been more prevelant and visible on the left as a counterweight.
But in a sense, Hitchens is correct. When i finished the book, I felt that Mrs. Jacoby gave the impression that secularism has ALWYAYS been a left-liberal venture - that 'freethought' is a synonym for 'ACLU' What of Ayn Rand, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sidney Hook and the many others who supported libertarian or conservative causes while maintaining atheistic views? Hook particularly is a glaring ommission as he was an atheist who was instrumental in the fight against communism (so much so that a very religious President Reagan gave him a medal of freedom for his efforts - an atheist!)
This leads to another criticism. Like most any history, this one is quite selective. The chapter on Thomas Paine, for example, paints him as almost a demi-god; his historically acknowledge flaws - egotism, fondness for the drink, and overall 'rebel who needs a cause' rambunctiousness - are either ignored or cast aside with one-sentence 'brush offs.' Even secularist Bertrand Russell, when writing an essay on Paine, felt the need to mention Paine's bad spots. While Mrs. Jacoby has written a fine history, revisions like these (and virtual lack of citations when making contreversial claims) made me a bit trepidacious.
All in all though, this book is a very good one that lays out a sorely needed counter to Christian historians' assertions that atheists and freethinkers have had little to do with American history. This is simply not true and Jacoby shows it. She doesn't deny (who could?) that Christianity is an inextricable part of our history, but writes of the forgotten, yet abundant, examples of the contributions of freethought.
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