Book Review: The Great Agnostic by Susan Jacoby

I recently finished reading The Great Agnostic, which is a biography of Robert Ingersoll. Mr. Ingersoll was a politician, orator, freethinker, and unabashed atheist, in the 19th century.  He was popular, in spite of his nonbelief. Ms. Jacoby does a good job convincing us that he should be remembered and honored for his contributions to modern free thought. The man was, by all accounts, self taught,  kind, generous, humorous, loyal, and plain spoken. Of course he was human and made errors in judgement at times, but he was also a man of sensitivity and understanding. He showed himself to be far ahead of his time in his humanism, especially his thoughts on the lives women and minorities, and treatment of women as equals. Now I am interested in reading some of Ingersoll's writings for myself.