Overview

"Today atheists, it seems, are everywhere. Nonbelievers write best-selling books and proudly defend their views in public; they have even hired a lobbyist. But, as political scientist Richard J. Meagher shows, atheist political activism is not a new phenomenon. From the ""Freethought"" movement of the late 1800s, to postwar ""rationalists"" and ""humanists,"" to today's proud atheists, nonbelievers have called for change within a resistant political culture. While atheist organizing typically has been a relatively lonely and sad affair, advances in technology and new political opportunities have helped atheists to finally gain at least some measure of legitimacy in American politics.   In Atheists in American Politics, one of the first works to take atheism seriously as a social movement, Meagher highlights key moments within the political history of atheism and freethought, and examines how the changing circumstances that surround the movement help explain political mobilization. In doing so, this book also highlights the ways that social movements in general gain momentum, and how a number of interlocking factors are often necessary to enable a movement to ""take off"" in American politics."

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9781498558570

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Reviews

Richard Meagher shines an illuminating light on the persistence of a current of atheism in American political thought, a current we usually ignore in this hyper-religious nation. -- Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY This is a great work on the past, present, and future of atheist organizing and politics in the U.S. It does a terrific job of tracing how this diffuse movement has, on one hand, gained a good deal of political and social capital in the last two decades, but, on the other hand, has been dogged by consistent problems of infighting and, until very recently, lack of resources. -- Richard Cimino, coauthor of Atheist Awakening: Secular Activism and Community in America In clear and direct prose, Meagher takes the reader through significant developments in the history of freethinking in the United States, analyzing the opportunities and constraints faced by atheists as their movement waxed, waned and grew again over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. His attention to the movement's leading publications, from magazines to best sellers to the blogosphere, as well as the political context in which they circulate, enables Meagher to account for the shifting identities and new political orientations created by atheist communities in the United States. This volume should serve as an essential primer for all audiences-students as well as the general public-who are interested in not just how and why the New Atheist movement has grown in recent years, but how and why social movements in general grow and gain traction.â -- Penny Lewis, CUNY

Richard Meagher shines an illuminating light on the persistence of a current of atheism in American political thought, a current we usually ignore in this hyper-religious nation.--Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, CUNY This is a great work on the past, present, and future of atheist organizing and politics in the U.S. It does a terrific job of tracing how this diffuse movement has, on one hand, gained a good deal of political and social capital in the last two decades, but, on the other hand, has been dogged by consistent problems of infighting and, until very recently, lack of resources.--Richard Cimino, coauthor of Atheist Awakening: Secular Activism and Community in America In clear and direct prose, Meagher takes the reader through significant developments in the history of freethinking in the United States, analyzing the opportunities and constraints faced by atheists as their movement waxed, waned and grew again over the course of the 20th century and into the 21st. His attention to the movement's leading publications, from magazines to best sellers to the blogosphere, as well as the political context in which they circulate, enables Meagher to account for the shifting identities and new political orientations created by atheist communities in the United States. This volume should serve as an essential primer for all audiences--students as well as the general public--who are interested in not just how and why the New Atheist movement has grown in recent years, but how and why social movements in general grow and gain traction.â --Penny Lewis, CUNY

Author Information

Richard J. Meagher is associate professor of political science and director of social entrepreneurship at Randolph-Macon College.

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