Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life

by Isaac Kramnick, R. Laurence Moore

Overview

“Illuminating.” —Phil Zuckerman, author of Living the Secular Life

If the First Amendment protects the separation of church and state, why have atheists had to fight for their rights? In this valuable work, R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick reveal the fascinating history of atheism in America and the legal challenges to federal and state laws that made atheists second-class citizens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393357264
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	516,337
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Isaac Kramnick is professor emeritus of government at Cornell University.

R. Laurence Moore is professor emeritus of history and American studies at Cornell University

Table of Contents

About Citations and Sources xi

Prologue xiii

Part 1 Atheists in America: Their Past

1 The invention of Religious Liberty 3

2 Atheism Becomes Un-American 18

3 The Political Cost of Nonbelief in Nineteenth-Century America 44

4 A Secular Equivalent of Religious Worship 72

Part 2 Atheists in America: Their Present

5 One Nation Under God 87

6 Fifty States Under God 110

7 Unequal Citizens Under God 129

8 The Atheist Awakening 154

Epilogue: Atheists and a Virtuous Republic 195

Notes, Citations, And Useful Reading 205

Acknowledgments 211

Index 213

Editorial Reviews

"As American demographics trend increasingly secular, religious conservatives are trying harder than ever to define the nation’s law and politics in their terms. Meanwhile, seeing secularism under attack, nonbelievers are standing up and speaking out as never before. Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic provides unique and valuable insight into these culture wars."

David Niose

"A thorough and useful history of the legal and political status of atheists in America."

The New Yorker - Casey Cep

"A fascinating look at atheism in America."

National Book Review

"[An] alternative history of the country, focused on the nonbelievers."

New York Times Book Review

"Godless Citizens is a well-considered, well-written, and arguably important book. It should be read by anyone who sees themselves as having had to live on the short end of things in an America fighting at any cost to be defined as Christian. Moore and Kramnick give us ample reason to take heart."

Humanist - Daniel Thomas Moran

07/02/2018
From the pages of state constitutions to the seats of Congress, Moore and Kramnick (The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness) search for places for the godless in American politics and find few. Beginning with the country’s roots in England, with its official state church, the United States’ protection of religious liberties excludes one group: nontheists and their nonbelief in a religion or deity. The authors explain that 18th- and 19th-century Americans associated morality with religion, so eschewing one was considered a rejection of the other. The tensions of the Cold War reinforced this historical bias, with rhetoric tying communism to atheism and implying a corresponding relationship between belief and patriotism. The concept of the dangerous, un-American—or worse, anti-American—atheist paved the way for the addition of “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 and “In God We Trust” to America’s currency in 1957, and constrained nontheists’ chances at public office and judicial seats. Synopses of pivotal Supreme Court cases demonstrate how atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists, and nontheists are frequently cast as an amoral minority. Through cautious and sensitive comparisons between nontheists and other marginalized groups, the authors present the marginalization of nontheists as an equal rights issue. This accessible and sincere book usefully makes explicit often-unspoken currents in American political life. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"An illuminating read on an increasingly important aspect of American history and politics. With more Americans eschewing religion, such a book is both timely and warranted."

Phil Zuckerman

"This compact and thorough work is a perfect introduction to atheism in America."

Booklist

"Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic provides exactly what we need more of from historians but so rarely get: accessible, well-written prose combined with scholarly discipline in the service of a contemporary issue badly in need of light rather than heat."

Eric Alterman

"R. Laurence Moore and Isaac Kramnick trace the often-shocking history of atheism in America. In a nation dedicated to the separation of church and state, we have seen furious battles over compulsory school prayer, discrimination against nonbelievers, and continuing efforts to declare this to be ‘a Christian nation.’ Moore and Kramnick bring to life a continuing struggle to make this nation what the Founders intended it to be."

Geoffrey R. Stone

2018-05-28
A survey of the social and political status of atheists in 21st-century America.As Moore (Emeritus, American Studies and History/Cornell Univ.) and Kramnick (Emeritus, Government/Cornell Univ.), who co-authored The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State, 2005, etc., define it, atheism sweeps wide and includes deists, agnostics, and secular humanists, comprising perhaps 20 percent of the U.S. population. The authors demonstrate at length that atheists in America—a country whose colonies were founded largely along religious lines—have historically suffered not just public scorn, but also prosecutions for blasphemy and such legal impediments as being denied the right to testify in court or to serve in public office. They provide concise but thorough summaries of judicial arguments and opinions that have justified striking down the most overtly discriminatory laws but leave in place less intrusive practices like prayer at public events. The authors further assert that private opinions disfavoring atheism nevertheless remain influential and that large majorities assume that "to be irreligious is to be 'un-American,' " an attitude actively encouraged during the Cold War. Various organizations of the current supposed "Atheist Awakening" are intent on remedying that through advertising, political activism, and largely unsuccessful legal assaults on remaining vestiges of religious observance and expression in government. Moore and Kramnick map the edges of conflict over the uneasy balance between atheists' rights not to be coerced into insincere professions of belief and believers' rights to express a conviction that religion is a fundamental bedrock of civil society. While supportive of the atheists' cause, their work is not as polemical as that of some of their colleagues; they are content to set out the issues atheist activists are now pressing. Some of these will likely strike readers as frivolous or as quixotic attempts to drive religion entirely from the public square, something no American government at any level has ever committed to doing.An impassioned review of the demands of a little-considered minority.

Kirkus Reviews