"Tracing a long history of religious freethought that has received little attention, Schmidt tells a gripping story not only of confrontation between Christians and 'infidels' but also one of negotiation, second thoughts, resistance to hypocrisy, principled integrity, and courage in the face of intolerance.
Village Atheists is the work of a prize-winning historian at the top of his game."
—Grant Wacker, author of America's Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a NationIn this pleasurable and well-researched book, Leigh Eric Schmidt offers a keen, sympathetic, and ever-insightful view of irreligion in nineteenth-century America. . . . I feel a customary obligation to write something critical--to point out a flaw, take issue with an assertion, level an insightful reproach. But I'm coming up empty. I simply loved this book. . . . [A] nitty-gritty, on-the-ground history that brings to life the personal and professional realities pioneering secularists navigated. It is vividly told, and more timely than ever. . . . For anyone interested in the birth, growth, and development of grass roots secularism in the United States--and the leading lights of American atheism long before Sam Harris or Madalyn Murray O’Hair--this book is an absolute must.---Phil Zuckerman, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
This well-written and lively text will be of interest to both scholars and more general readers with an interest in American irreligion.
The best history of nonbelievers in the United States. . . . Schmidt's prose is lucid and often clever, the biographies he’s written are engaging, and his archival research is especially valuable.---Joseph Blankholm, Public Books
Schmidt's rich, deep exploration of atheist thinkers in 19th-century America contextualizes questions pressing on American Christianity today.
The book is well organized and well written. It would be good for both popular and scholarly audiences. Schmidt has done exhaustive research, and the endnotes are often as interesting as the text itself. . . . Refreshing.---Malcolm D. Magee, Journal of Southern History
"This is a book that finally argues that atheists belong at the center of the study of American religion, showing how religious infidelity is always and ever the other side of religious fidelity. Both are practiced and articulated with equal contradiction, anguish, and social struggle. Schmidt has redeemed the village atheist as a category of serious significance."—Kathryn Lofton, author of Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon
Village Atheists engagingly explores a persecuted American minority.---John Garratt, PopMatters
An engaging examination of unbelief in the 19th and early 20th centuries at the grassroots.---Glenn C. Altschuler, Tulsa World
Schmidt offers an entertaining yet educational read for those interested in America's secular history and the struggles many faced to become vocal freethinkers without persecution.
A powerful meditation on the tension between belief and unbelief in the long project of collective identity formation in the United States.---Geoffrey Pollick, The Revealer
Noteworthy.---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
Leigh Eric Schmidt's book admirably charts an important period of this history, from the Civil War to the first decades of the twentieth century. During this time the public discourse of unbelief was loudly shaped by a series of colorful personalities whose careers Schmidt deftly limns in four very readable and entertaining chapters: Samuel Putnam, Watson Heston, Charles Reynolds, and Elmina Drake Slenker.---David Morgan, Indiana Magazine of History
"Schmidt has always written with verve and precision, and he draws the four freethinkers profiled here as colorful and cantankerous foot soldiers in the culture wars of past generations. He is a superb writer who can engage readers who might not normally be drawn to books in religious history."—E. Brooks Holifield, author of God's Ambassadors: A History of the Christian Clergy in America
One of CHOICE’s Outstanding Academic Titles for 2017
His deep reading in letters from small-town citizens to the editors of infidel journals--a major source of the anecdotes in Village Atheists--prove that irreligion existed in all areas of the country, including what would become the Bible Belt.---Allison Miller, Perspectives on History
For anyone interested in the birth, growth, and development of grassroots secularism in the United States--and the leading lights of American atheism long before Sam Harris or Madalyn Murray O'Hair--this book is an absolute must.---Phil Zuckerman, Los Angeles Review of Books
The extensive research and clear writing in Village Atheists provides significant enlightenment about our history.---Mark Kolsen, American Atheist
A felicitous, informative story from a highly knowledgeable author.
"This is a fresh, lively, discerning account of popular freethought. Schmidt shows how resilient and resourceful have been the minority of Americans who publicly refuse belief in God. Amid vehement efforts by the religious majority to suppress them, these hated ‘village atheists' managed to expand gradually the borders of acceptable spiritual orientations. Schmidt's fascinating subjects are popular writers and cartoonists, not the scientists and philosophers that dominate our standard secularization narrative."—David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley
