The Great Agnostic by Susan Jacoby
A biography that restores America's foremost nineteenth-century champion of reason and secularism to our still contested twenty-first-century public square
Won Honorable Mention for the 2013 Southern California Book Festival, in the Biography/Autobiography category, sponored by JM Northern Media LLC
Won Honorable Mention in the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival for the Biography/Autobiography category, given by JM Northern Media LLC
"Jacoby succeeds in capturing Ingersoll's remarkable appeal across sectarian and political boundariesHis warmth, humor, tolerance, and rhetorical skill are vividly conveyed, and they are validated by much contemporaneous testimony from figures who would ordinarily have been expected to shun an infamous blasphemer."—Frederick Crews, University of California, Berkeley
"As someone who did brave battle with narrow-minded fundamentalists in his own day, Robert Ingersoll would surely be appalled at the political influence of their heirs today. But their very rise makes Susan Jacoby’s fine, compact and judicious account of Ingersoll’s life and ideas all the more important. She has given us a splendid intellectual portrait of an American who deserves to be far better known."—Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains and To End All Wars
"Robert Ingersoll used his wit to blast the absurdities of religion, while his warmth kept him close to his audiences. He has found his perfect biographer in Susan Jacoby, who uses his story to provide deep insights not only into Ingersoll’s century but our own."—Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction
"Susan Jacoby has written a necessary, informative, and intelligent survey of the life, times, and writings of a most neglected figure in American history. A serious and thoughtful reflection on a topic of interest to historians, humanists, and social scientists, let alone general readers, The Great Agnostic will deepen one of the most important of contemporary debates."—Alan Wolfe, author of The Future of Liberalism
Won Honorable Mention in the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival for the Biography/Autobiography category, given by JM Northern Media LLC
"Jacoby succeeds in capturing Ingersoll's remarkable appeal across sectarian and political boundariesHis warmth, humor, tolerance, and rhetorical skill are vividly conveyed, and they are validated by much contemporaneous testimony from figures who would ordinarily have been expected to shun an infamous blasphemer."—Frederick Crews, University of California, Berkeley
"As someone who did brave battle with narrow-minded fundamentalists in his own day, Robert Ingersoll would surely be appalled at the political influence of their heirs today. But their very rise makes Susan Jacoby’s fine, compact and judicious account of Ingersoll’s life and ideas all the more important. She has given us a splendid intellectual portrait of an American who deserves to be far better known."—Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains and To End All Wars
"Robert Ingersoll used his wit to blast the absurdities of religion, while his warmth kept him close to his audiences. He has found his perfect biographer in Susan Jacoby, who uses his story to provide deep insights not only into Ingersoll’s century but our own."—Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction
"Susan Jacoby has written a necessary, informative, and intelligent survey of the life, times, and writings of a most neglected figure in American history. A serious and thoughtful reflection on a topic of interest to historians, humanists, and social scientists, let alone general readers, The Great Agnostic will deepen one of the most important of contemporary debates."—Alan Wolfe, author of The Future of Liberalism
Susan Jacoby is the author of numerous books, including Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism,The Age of American Unreason, Alger Hiss and the Battle for History, and The Last Men on Top, a recently published eBook. She lives in New York City.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780300205787 |
| ISBN 10 | 0300205783 |
| Title | The Great Agnostic |
| Author | Susan Jacoby |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
| Year published | 2014-03-15 |
| Number of pages | 256 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |