In 19th century America, Robert G. Ingersoll was a sensational, outspoken, and entertaining speaker who filled auditoriums and provided many column-inches of copy for the newspapers. He was sought by politicians as a campaign speaker and was simultaneously the subject of condemnation by most of the country’s preachers for his convincing challenge to their sermons and sacred text, the Bible. Susan Jacoby successfully makes the case that Robert Ingersoll should not be an unknown figure to Americans. This biography will make readers ask, Why haven’t I ever heard of this man?

Freethought is a term which arose in England in the late 1700s, referring to those who do not accept proposed ideas as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason. Usually used in the context of religion, a freethinker opposes or cannot accept religious claims based on revealed knowledge, dogma, and literal interpretation of the Bible.

Ingersoll was a prominent freethinker in his day, and today his positions on political, cultural, and social issues are still relevant in debates regarding science vs. religion, equal rights for women and racial minorities, church and state, theists and non-theists. Jacoby shows how prescient and fearless he was in advocating for unpopular positions while at the same time being so entertaining that he was a star of the lecture circuit.

Four biographies of Ingersoll precede this one, the last one written in 1990. This most recent one allows us to contrast him and his issues in light of current events and people. Jacoby refers to Justice Scalia, Richard Dawkins, Representative Pete Stark (a Democrat from California and the only openly non-theist in Congress), and the recent rise of a demographic called the religiously non-affiliated or “nones.” The closing chapter is a “Letter to the ‘New’ Atheists.” She convinces us that Ingersoll, though nearly forgotten, has purchase and relevance today.

His prolific output, collected and published in 12 volumes by his family after his death, provide hundreds of quotable excerpts and pithy one-liners. For example: “Disobedience is one of the conditions of progress,” and, “You had better live well and die cursing than live badly and die praying.”

This book is too short to cover in depth every aspect of his life or achievements, but it is an excellent and easy to read introduction to Ingersoll. For those already “baptized” in Ingersolism, this biography is made fresh thanks to Ms. Jacoby’s perspective as a woman and modern secularist. She aptly covers the major social issues on which he took a stand, places them in the context of his day and then relates them to the debates we are having today. Ingersoll was a proponent of liberty for all: slaves, former slaves, the irreligious, children and women. He was a strong supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and foresaw the future of the movement by 100 years stating that women, to be truly free, needed not just the franchise but education, access to birth control, and the right to divorce (for reasons other than adultery), to jobs and fair wages.

He was a champion of science and argued against the churches’ historic and continued opposition to it. “The church still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit thereof.” He thought “that scientists and inventors had done much more for the welfare of human beings than preachers of any creed.” He read and supported Darwin’s very controversial theory. He helped to defuse and counter the hurt felt by many of not being divinely created. He said “that they too could get over the short-lived trauma of the loss of human exceptionalism.”

He was a Humanist and authored his own creed: “Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” He delivered a rousing speech in opposition to the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Introduced in Washington, D.C. by Frederick Douglass, Ingersoll’s speech was so popular that he was drafted to deliver it again a few days later to another full auditorium.

He was a secularist and advocate of free speech. “I deny the right of any man, of any number of men, of any church, or any State, to put a padlock on the lips — to make the tongue a convict. … Blasphemy is the word that the majority hisses into the ear of the few.” This is from the 1887 trial for blasphemy brought by the State of New Jersey against C. B. Reynolds, whom Ingersoll, the lawyer, represented.

Ingersoll is an interesting historical character for Washingtonians, not just because he was a great advocate and debater of causes in a city which houses the largest and longest running debate venue and show in America, but because he lived and worked here for seven years. He advocated for voting rights for D.C. residents and hosted very popular, extravagant weekly open house parties attended enthusiastically by politicians, artists, and diplomats.

Eight years ago, Tim Page (former music critic of the Washington Post) published a little 135 page booklet, What’s God Got To Do With It?, of highly edited excerpts from Ingersoll’s Works (a 12 volume set!) in the hope that it would tease readers into reading more of and about Ingersoll. Jacoby’s book will do the same and help to correct the obscurity of this important American champion of equality and freethought.

Steven Lowe is an amateur historian and a member of the Board of Directors of Washington Area Secular Humanists (WASH). He served in the Peace Corps in Zaire and worked in the telecommunication industry for 20 years.