A review by bookowl81
The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought by Susan Jacoby
4.0
A friend of mine introduced me to Ingersoll about a year ago. I started reading bits and pieces of his work and was fascinating by his depth of intellect and his remarkable speaking ability.
This book helped me to see quite a bit more of who he was. His courage was something to behold. His thoughts on religion, secularism, free thought, and the law were well ahead of their time and he faced quite a bit of scrutiny and invective from his colleagues. However, his incredible eloquence and intelligence helped him to fill halls to capacity and, often times, had audiences spilling into the street just to get a chance to hear him or meet him.
This is a brief biography but it's a good starter for those interested in one of the great thinkers of 19th century America.
This book helped me to see quite a bit more of who he was. His courage was something to behold. His thoughts on religion, secularism, free thought, and the law were well ahead of their time and he faced quite a bit of scrutiny and invective from his colleagues. However, his incredible eloquence and intelligence helped him to fill halls to capacity and, often times, had audiences spilling into the street just to get a chance to hear him or meet him.
This is a brief biography but it's a good starter for those interested in one of the great thinkers of 19th century America.