The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought

by Susan Jacoby

During the Gilded Age, which saw the dawn of America’s enduring culture wars, Robert Green Ingersoll was known as “the Great Agnostic.” The nation’s most famous orator, he raised his voice on behalf of Enlightenment reason, secularism, and the separation of church and state with a vigor unmatched since America’s revolutionary generation. When he died in 1899, even his religious enemies acknowledged that he might have aspired to the U.S. presidency had he been willing to mask his opposition to religion. To the question that retains its controversial power today—was the United States founded as a Christian nation?—Ingersoll answered an emphatic no.

In this provocative biography, Susan Jacoby, the author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, restores Ingersoll to his rightful place in an American intellectual tradition extending from Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine to the current generation of “new atheists.” Jacoby illuminates the ways in which America’s often-denigrated and forgotten secular history encompasses issues, ranging from women’s rights to evolution, as potent and divisive today as they were in Ingersoll’s time. Ingersoll emerges in this portrait as one of the indispensable public figures who keep an alternative version of history alive. He devoted his life to that greatest secular idea of all—liberty of conscience belonging to the religious and nonreligious alike.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Religion, Philosophy, Atheism, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 3, 2013

About the author

Susan Jacoby is an independent scholar and best-selling author. The most recent of her seven previous books is The Age of American Unreason. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Kirk Knighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am now sixty years old and I didn't discover Robert Ingersoll until about ten years ago - thanks to Dan Barker and the Freedom From Religion Foundation for introducing me to him! That one introduction was enough to entice me to go out and buy a complete set of Ingersoll's Works, and I haven't been able to get enough of him ever since. Absolutely inspiring man!
I've also bought and read all the older biographies of Ingersoll published over the years, so when I read about Jacoby's new biography coming out I was excited for "something new" about my guy.
And the book doesn't disappoint; it's just, for me, way too short. I already knew most of what Jacoby writes about; I'm guessing the book is more aimed at people who may have never heard of RGI before.
I will say this: ALL of the books about Ingersoll pretty much end with his death, and a bit about his legacy perhaps. NONE of them say a thing about what became of RGI's widow and beloved daughters. The Ingersoll family was tight; RGI adored his wife and his two daughters. Their family life was a huge part of Robert's life. I can't imagine what they did after he died. His wife lived another 24 years - what did she do with these years without her beloved husband? And his daughters? And then his grandchildren? Alas, all there is - that I know of - is a book of RGI's Letters, published and edited by one of his granddaughters in the 1950s. I have that book too, and it is wonderful.
I commend Jacoby for writing this book and doing what she could to bring Ingersoll back to life in the 21st century. More needs to be done, however. But what?

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the author had at least three objectives when she wrote this book. First, she wanted the reader to gain a knowledge and appreciation for the unique and singular character of Mr. Ingersoll. We truly get a representative overview of Mr. Ingersoll that leaves the reader feeling like they are now informed. If the reader desires a more in depth treatment, they are well on their way by starting with this small volume. Second, she wants to educate the reader with an overview history of some of America's greatest figures in the Freethought movement. On this front also, I feel like my understanding has been greatly enhanced. Third, I believe that she wants to create awareness of the struggle that progressive ideas have had taking root in American culture. She does a wonderful job of highlighting these issues, and in explaining the events that are associated with them.

I bought this book along with Ms. Jacoby's book, "Freethinkers, A History of American Secularism." Both books share information, and they are perfect companion volumes. I recommend that you read them together, and that you add them to your personal library. These books are a perfect reference set, and will serve as basic information regarding the subjects that they discuss. I heard Ms. Jacoby say that she wanted to draw attention to Mr. Ingersoll's life and work, in much the same way that he had done for Thomas Paine. She definitely hit a Home Run!

[Richard Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colonel Ingersoll is one of the great thinkers the United States has produced yet most have never heard of him because of his scepticism towards religion. This is a great book written by a great writer that will give one a good understanding of the life and influence of Ingersoll. The extensive bibliography is a great resource for exploring Ingersoll's writings.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT, ENLIGHTENING, ENRICHING & ENTERTAINING.

“While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself; and my creed is this. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. The creed is somewhat short, but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world. If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed.—RGI”—page 70

Little cleans the reading palette better than the lucid rhetoric of Robert G. Ingersoll.

Following in the footsteps of Voltaire (1694-1778) and Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) was the unexcelled leader and champion of the freethought movement, in America, in the late nineteenth century. He is a superstar in my personal pantheon of heroes and I’m grateful to Susan Jacoby for sharing his story, and for advocating for his place in secular history. Her excellent biography: THE GREAT AGNOSTIC: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought, is a very worthwhile read.

Recommendation: This is a must read.

"We are the advocates of inquiry, of investigation and thought." page 15

A NOOKbook from Barnes and Noble

[cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

We need a Robert Ingersoll in the 21st century, a charismatic, thoughtful, joyful infidel who gets the ear of people on all sides of the issues to shed light on the dangers of religion and the beautiful possibilities of secular culture. Same damn issues 150+ yrs later, too, equality for women, unfair distribution of wealth, worker rights as human rights, etc.
This book made me wish I could have a few beers with Ingersoll and thank him for his efforts at restoring Thomas Paine to the American consciousness. Then I realized I should find a way to have a few beers with Susan Jacoby and thank her for reviving Ingersoll similarly.
I found this book to be well-written and easy to read, with just the right amount of author's commentary to accompany well-researched biographical info.

[Reidar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very excited when I first noticed that Susan Jacoby had set out to write a biography of The Great Agnostic, Robert G. Ingersoll, whose life and legacy I have had revered for quite some time. Jacoby has done an excellent job in lifting Ingersoll out of obscurity and restoring the image of this magnificent American orator. I can highly recommend this biography not only to all secularists and freethinkers, but everyone with an interest in American history, irrespective of their religious beliefs (or lack thereof).

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ingersoll is a hero of mine so I was looking forward to this new biography. It was good, but I think I would have preferred a more comprehensive bio than this short (211 pages) one that seems focused on enhancing Ingersoll's position in history than telling his full story. Jacoby wrote about Ingersoll in her earlier book, Freethinkers, and this book just didn't have that much more info. Still, I love the guy, and it was nice to learn a little more about him and his times.

[A.J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb, quick read. Jacoby is owed a debt for her effort to bring back Ingersoll from the graveyard of American history.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Jacoby wants to do for Robert Ingersoll what Robert Ingersoll did for Tom Paine, return this great American freethinker to a place of importance in the pantheon of American culture. I’m not sure her biography THE GREAT AGNOSTIC will accomplish what Ingersoll did for the at-the-time forgotten Paine, but it sure cleared my ignorance of this articulate rational secularist. Ingersoll is smart company, as is Jacoby, and was ahead of his time in championing women’s rights, immigration and Walt Whitman, who he deemed the country’s greatest artist when his works were still dismissed as obscene. Sadly, his fight to declaw the beast of religion and its lockjaw grip on the United States has proven less successful. While alive it appeared that the country was moving away from its adherence to superstitious doctrine and towards a more enlightened view of society, but less than 100 years after Ingersoll’s death Bible literalists remain powerfully entrenched in our politics. Jacoby gives the “new” atheists a round punishing for not including Ingersoll in their defense of reasoned thought. She offers her thinking as to why Ingersoll is forgotten today, a large part of which may have to do with his impatience for inhumanity, whether it be the hypocrisy of religion or the cruelty of science. Ingersoll was one of the main voices responsible for disseminating Darwin’s Theory of Evolution to the masses, but he was not against shaming the scientific community for its barbaric treatment of animals for experimentation. Jacoby’s short book is less a thorough biography of Ingersoll than one of these pamphlets of the past used to rally the people. It fired me up.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew? And that's the whole point of this book about this mostly forgotten figure.

An easy-to-read, historical look at an amazing secular leader and man. I learned a lot and I highly recommend it.

[Jesse Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever heard of Robert Ingersoll?

Me neither. At least, not until I read Susan Jacoby’s biography of the man once known across America as the Great Agnostic. Ingersoll was actually an atheist (unlike many moderns, he drew no distinction between the terms). According to Jacoby, he was also the most influential figure in American secularism since Thomas Paine.

To make her case, Jacoby explores Ingersoll’s remarkable career as a cross-country orator, trial lawyer, critic of religion, and social justice advocate, one whose wit and wisdom drew praise from fundamentalists and freethinkers alike (in some ways, he strikes me as an atheist counterpart to G.K. Chesterton). Along the way, she paints a vivid picture of the clash between scientific discovery and religious dogmatism that rocked the end of the Gilded Age. Her account closes with a letter to the New Atheists, one that calls for a fresh reappraisal of Ingersoll’s legacy.

Really enjoyed this one. Not only was it fascinating from a historical perspective, but it got me thinking in more detail about the kinds of values I want to embody in future work and writing.

[DaVonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

"While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself; and my creed is this. Happiness is the only good. the time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. The creed is somewhat short, but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world. If there is another, world, when we get there we can make another creed (97)." Robert G. Ingersoll

This book, ironically, was a God-send. I for years recognized the painfully obvious issues between church and state in this country. I also recognized monumental hipocracies in orthodox and institutional theology. I never knew, however there was a word to describe all of these uncertainties in one and a movement/ideology around it (I blame that on a, though exceptionally strong public education, in my opinion, lacking just the same;something Ingersoll would have frowned upon).

Normally when I read articles about political thinkers both current and historical there are major points in their opinion and logic with which I greatly disagree. That was not the case with Ingersoll. And While I still struggle with the idea of labeling myself exclusively an Agnostic, or Athiest (because Jacoby would argue they are one in the same), I recognize that my ideas and opinions on issues political, social, and religious are frighteningly aligned with that of Ingersoll and his freethinking secularist, aka Agnostics.

This book is a must read for the self proclaimed enlightened thinker or liberal minded individual. I would recommend it many of my close friends.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent portrait of a man who has become unjustly obscure in the current age. Besides being a leading critic of religion and popularizer of evolution, he was well ahead of his time in virtually every cause of consequence in the 19th century: abolition, equal rights for women, equal rights for people of color, equal rights for immigrants, the eight hour workday (he even used his influence to obtain pardons for some of those convicted in the Haymarket affair), free public education, and women's reproductive rights. Susan Jacoby provides an engaging, entertaining account of a secular humanist life well-lived.

[Kathleen Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enthusiastically recommend this book to all those who value the examined life and cherish the spirit of tolerance in which the United States of America was established. Our founders were the first to create a nation where freedom of conscience would be a right embodied in the law of the land, and protected by a strict separation between church and state. Ours would be the first nation that was not a theocracy, whose laws did not derive from any religious doctrine. Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was one of the political philosophers who helped to forge that ideal. Indeed, his pamphlet Common Sense was so influential that John Adams said, "Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain." He counted Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson among his friends. Unfortunately, due to a falling out with George Washington in later years, and the publication of his pamphlet The Age of Reason in which he “came out” as a deist, Paine was ostracized and eventually relegated to the status of a footnote in our national history.

Enter Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), a patriotic atheist who devoted a lot of time and effort toward “rehabilitating” Paine’s legacy and educating his fellow Americans about the significance of our separation of church and state. He was a successful, well-known lawyer, an admired figure in his day, who would most certainly have been elected to public office in one capacity or another, had he not chosen to publically avow his atheism. Then, as now, despite our claims to be a tolerant nation where freedom of conscience is paramount, the only creed which we are not prepared to respect or tolerate is that of no creed. In Ingersoll’s time, as in our own, religious belief had insidiously and inexplicably come to be seen as an essential component of patriotism, even though such a view is illogical and clearly contrary to the intentions of the Founding Fathers.

Ingersoll was a self-made, self-educated man. He was the son of a strict Presbyterian minister who raised the boy on his own after his wife’s death. As a young lawyer Ingersoll impressed all those he came in contact with, and eventually became the most celebrated speaker of his day. His admirers included Clara Barton, Frederick Douglass, Andrew Carnegie, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and Thomas Edison. One of his closest life-long friends was the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, brother of author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It was a well-known fact that even those who disagreed with his progressive ideas, such as emancipation for slaves and the vote for women, would flock to hear him speak, such were his gifts. He could render complex scientific ideas, like evolution, understandable even to those with little education, and his sense of humor was legendary.

It makes me sad to think that such an intelligent and talented man as Robert Green Ingersoll, who contributed so much to the intellectual life of his time, could be a virtual unknown a mere 100 years after his death. Susan Jacoby has done us all a favor by bringing him back into the public eye, just as Ingersoll himself did for political philosopher and hero of the American Revolution Thomas Payne. Her book is not a biography, although it includes biographical information. Jacoby’s focus is on Ingersoll’s intellectual development, those who influenced him, and the influence he had on others. He was a man ahead of his time, whose relevance has not diminished. His advocacy of equality for women, civil rights, birth control, the humane treatment of animals, separation of church and state, and so many other causes that are still debated today, underscores just how far in advance of his time he was. Jacoby’s tribute to Ingersoll and all he stood for is also timely, given how so many of the causes that he championed are now under attack by a new wave of far right ideology sweeping not just the U.S., but the world.

[Pam · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a shame. Jacoby chooses to write about such interesting topics. This book is mis-shelved. It was in history, but would have been better placed in political opinion because she just cannot resist interjecting her own strong political beliefs. She should refrain from snide remarks. Heck, she should refrain from the use of any and all adjectives and adverbs. Jacoby belongs on the op/ed page of a newspaper instead of hiding beneath the factual heading of history. Shame on her; shame on her editor. This is not my first book by this author, but it will definitely be my last.

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became familiar with author Susan Jacoby through freethought podcasts. She is one of the best and brightest voices in secularism and I'm delighted that she wrote this biography of one of my heroes, Colonel Ingersoll. While not a long or comprehensive account of Ingersoll's life, Jacoby hits the important events and fleshes out what made Ingersoll one of the greatest Americans and maybe the greatest American not many Americans know about.

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), known as "The Great Agnostic", was a great writer and the finest, most popular orator of his time. Despite his harsh criticism of religion and nonbelief in the spiritual or supernatural, he attracted huge crowds wherever he spoke as he was supremely intelligent and a great speaker. In 1876, he spoke to an estimated 50,000 people in the Chicago Exposition Building which was the largest crowd to see one man in Chicago and one of the largest crowds ever attracted by one person. This was before electronic public address systems were invented!

He isn't as well known as he should be, partly because he never rose that high in politics, the highest office he held was Illinois Attorney General. Why was this? Because his beliefs were too progressive for the late 19th century: he believed in the equality of races, equality of sexes, and that religion was man-made hokum. He was implored to conceal his agnosticism and run for governor but refused to do so. Just like it is today, if a person does not believe in a god they have no chance in even being elected town dogcatcher. He spoke and wrote on a variety of topics and was an unequaled debater as well. Unfortunately, after his death, a number of religious leaders who held sway over god-fearing America slandered him and dragged him through the mud for being a non-believer. Just like today, being a good person isn't good enough for many of the believers if you aren't bowing to a god. His legacy was not preserved as it should've been and unfortunately it faded away. In the Afterword of this book, Jacoby pleads with the new atheists to "work tenaciously for the restoration of the memory of this old American freethinker" as he continued the work of Thomas Paine and belongs in the same honor roll as the greats he stood on the shoulders of: Copernicus, Galileo, Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, Voltaire, Paine, Humboldt, and Darwin. And he paved the way for the likes of Hitchens and Dawkins.

This is a really good introduction to the life and times of The Great Agnostic. I learned a bit more about Ingersoll than read in prior books, most notably the circumstances around his peaceful death and last words, and his relationships with a number of famous contemporary politicians and other notables of the Gilded Age.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Susan Jacoby's books, particularly about the early American freethinkers.

[Steven Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a pity Doc Brown and Marty McFly couldn’t use the DeLorean time machine to get Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) from the late eighteen-hundreds and bring him back to the future. I’d imagine the Great Agnostic would have mixed emotions about our current philosophical landscape. Ms. Jacoby’s book is not a biography. She does give a little backstory but it’s more of a tribute and an attempt to highlight the importance of his work on many social issues, especially his stances on religion that still very much resonate even today. The author’s wonderful prior works such as ‘Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism’ (2004) and ‘The Age of American Unreason’ (2008) make it clear she is an advocate for reason or fantasy.

As stated by the Boston Globe, Ms. Jacoby writes with wit and vigor. While Robert Ingersoll is little known by most people in 2019, his impact has rippled down through the ages. The talented public speaker and lawyer was very much in demand by both the religious and nonbelievers during the Golden Age of Freethought between 1875 and World War I. It was a time period when many of the progressive positions he defended were not held by the majority of citizens. While he was financially successful, any aspirations he had for government employment where continually rejected because of his unconventional stances. The author explains and uses some of Ingersoll’s material to demonstrate his opinions on the separation of church and state, women’s rights, the importance of science, corporal and capital punishment, racial and sexual equality, birth control, blasphemy laws, and public education. Goodness knows, he was on most religious bigwig’s naughty list and drove his detractors bonkers by continually drawing large crowds while living a happy scandal-free domestic life. The secular humanist took umbrage with social Darwinists and believed strongly in the intellectual equality between men and women.

There are no scandals in ‘The Great Agnostic.’ The book is about giving Ingersoll his due. Ms. Jacoby does a commendable job. It is informative and entertaining. I found it amusing how Ingersoll anticipated the Christian habit of inventing deathbed conversion stories and took steps to make sure it was known he died a happy optimistic atheist/agnostic/whatever. This religious nonsense still plays out today. High-profile atheists Steve Jobs and Christopher Hitchens are two current examples of silly deathbed conversion stories still making the rounds. Ms. Jacoby is an unabashed atheist/agnostic/whatever who uses logic, history, and an engaging writing style to explain America’s secular past and present. Ingersoll said, “Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.” ‘The Great Agnostic’ may alleviate some of your magical thinking.

[Scott Lupo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, succinct, easy-to-read biography on a great man whose name is relatively unknown to Americans, even secular atheists. Robert Ingersoll was a freethinking atheist in a time when Americans were actually interested and open-minded enough to attend freethinking events like the ones Ingersoll presented throughout America. More than anything, this book is like a teaser for the reader who may want to know/explore more about Ingersoll. His astute observations, witty humor, and tremendous orating skills allowed Ingersoll to reach the rural audiences of America and inform them of the issues of the day. A man whose influence helped politicians get elected and expanded the minds of the many uneducated Americans of the day. A man who gave back more than what was asked of him. Rational, reasonable thinking goes a long way. Too bad he's not alive today. We could really use an Ingersoll in today's discourses.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Grandfather's surname was Ingersoll..He had one of those old fashioned names and rather than being called that, he went by "Bob." I always thought that it was because of his unattractive name. So it was not until my Mom (this year aged 85) suggested this book for my book group that I learned that my Grandfather (the other Bob Ingersoll) was called Bob because of Robert G. Ingersoll! Grandpa Bob was a bit of a socialist. (He grew up in the Pillar of Fire, a religious community which treated him unfairly and which he left before aged 20, so his attitudes were understandable).

ANYWAY this is a great read, and for those of us of the more liberal persuasion, I highly recommend it. The thoughts and values of the free thinkers are carried on into this century because of clever men like both Bob Ingersolls, who understand that ethics and values are more important than and can exist without religion.

[Correen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ingersoll considered himself to be a free thinker but the label of the times was an Agnostic. He was a successful attorney, so much so that had he been a Protestant, he would have been considered a strong candidate for President of the U.S. In the 19th century, Catholics and Jews, in many states, were often denied the right to run for public office. Free thinkers and skeptics were usually not formally denied the right but were kept off ballots.
Susan Jacoby, the author, has written several books about free thinkers. I would like to read more of her work in this area of scholarship.

[Leslie R · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book. Robert Ingersoll makes me feel seen. I can't believe that I never learned about him even with 8 years of higher education. He seems like a truly good man, and I was surprised when I didn't find he had really any abhorrent view points. Anti-religious, anti-slavery, pro-women's rights... you name it, this man thought about it and tried to make the best decision.

This book has inspired me to read another of Jacoby's works about freethinkers, and it definitely makes me want to revisit Thomas Paine.

[Cliff Merrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book about a profound freethinker so far ahead of is time! He argued his positions in such a manner that even most his opponents admired him.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home in Iowa in the 1940s - so even the "idea" of Robert Ingersoll was verboten (although I believe there is an Ingersoll Avenue in Des Moines even today!!). He was a heretic and that was all there was to it - a specimen to be ridiculed, to be humiliated. It is only now, at the tail-end of my life, that I have come to understand that he ACTUALLY is a specimen of the true American hero - a patriot, a defender of our constitutional form of non-religious government, the champion of the separation of church and state, an eloquent spokesperson for those who founded our country and wanted neither a king nor a church over them. In those post-war days of the late 1940s and 1950s, these concepts nearly got swept away by the rise of communism. America decided to choose a white, god-fearing (and I mean "fearing") structure in defence of capitalism. Then, of course, white evangelicalism reared its ugly head (with Nixon's southern strategy) and dove into politics with all four feet (remember the Moral Majority - which was NOT a majority and CERTAINLY not moral). Hopefully, we are coming out of this morass now - or in the near future. Perhaps, once again, we will be the beacon nation that serves neither the strong man nor the strongest religion. Maybe. We could use a Robert Ingersoll today on the lecture circuit. A good dose of sarcasm about Pat Robertson and Donald Trump would be a healthy thing. Enough of my diabribe. BUT - read this book if you want to get mad.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an introduction to the life of Robert Ingersoll, but it's very short and is far from being a full-fledged biography of Ingersoll. The book is nearly as much a history of freethought in the the 1800s (which accords with the latter half of the title) as it is a story of the life and philosophy of Ingersoll.

Personally, I would have enjoyed a greater focus on Ingersoll himself and on his famous lectures, but the book was still interesting.

If you're really interested in Ingersoll, his philosophy, and his influence, his collected works or a detailed biography will likely provide more and better information.

[David Veazey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like, I think, most Americans today, I knew very little about Robert Intersoll. But Ingersaoll was the 19th century thinker who was willing to pass on the national office career he was capable of and connected enough for because it was more important to him to be open as a freethinker and show the absurdity of religious teaching. Because of his ability to speak to the common individual, he drew large crowds of both believers and nonbelievers who had heard of his entertaining presentations. According to Susan Jocoby, Ingersoll was one who kept the Enlightenment alive during his time, in the tradition of Voltaire and Thomas Paine.

[Christopher Hellstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short book on Ingersoll. He was the most popular public speaker when he died in 1899 and now has fell into near obscurity. He would be surprised to know that he would be more controversial 112 years later than in his own time.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good, short introduction to one of America's most important but sadly little-known public intellectuals. After reading this book, I became a friend of the Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, and *almost* dropped $5500 on a signed first-edition of the 12 volume complete works...I wish.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a substitute for a private book I read since fucking goodreads refuses to add a private shelf/flag; I just picked a book of similar length so that it would count toward my 2022 reading challenge.

[Stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important book in the rediscovery of this important historical figure. I'm not always fond of Jacoby's writing style, even though I mostly agree with her. Worth reading.

[Jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author is on a mission to describe a family tree of American Freethought with one branch descending through Thomas Paine down to Ingersoll and another splitting off toward Social Darwinism and to Ayn Rand. Her sole and unhidden focus is to pull Ingersoll from obscurity and give him the credit she feels he is due for influencing American culture and political thought. She even includes in the appendix an open letter to the “new atheists” like Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris that says as much.

The book is good for what it is, but it I was hoping there would be more exposition of the kinds of things Ingersoll thought and said. The author writes more about how Ingersoll spoke (with wit and sarcasm) than what he actually said. I was hoping for a run-down of his intellectual arguments but none was forthcoming. I guess I do have a good idea of the very top level highlights - we have no reason to think there is a God “being;” evolution is our best theory, but it doesn’t mean humans aren’t still precious and unique; and we all have a responsibility to take care of each other - but if you are looking for a book full of reasoned arguments, counter-arguments, and rebuttals to back up these claims, look elsewhere.



Potent Quotables:

There are two distinct threads in the history of American secularism—the first descending from the humanism and egalitarianism of Paine and the second from nineteenth-century social Darwinism through the twentieth-century every-man-for-himself “objectivism” of Ayn Rand.

“Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” Robert Ingersoll

As a Gilded Age Republican who considered the alleviation of poverty a social responsibility, an individualist and libertarian who insisted that government protect the rights of minorities, an economic conservative on some issues but an advocate for social reform who often sounded like Thomas Paine and John Stuart Mill, Ingersoll held opinions that sometimes seemed contradictory even to contemporaries who deeply admired him for his opposition to religion.

The difference between civilization and nature, Darwin said, was that civilized man cares for instead of exterminates the weaker members of the species.

God need not be the father of all men for all men to be brothers. For Ingersoll, the common ancestry of human beings could never be reconciled with the social Darwinist conviction that the mighty were mighty and the serfs were serfs because they deserved to be so.

“Brain without heart is far more dangerous than heart without brain.” Robert Ingersoll