Atheists in American Politics

Social Movement Organizing from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries

Richard J. Meagher

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.

Lexington Books

Pages: 168 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-5857-0 • Hardback • February 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-5859-4 • Paperback • November 2019 • $46.99 • (£36.00)

978-1-4985-5858-7 • eBook • February 2018 • $44.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Political Science / History & Theory, History / Social History, Political Science / American Government / National, Religion / Atheism, Social Science / Social Movements

Atheists in American Politics

Social Movement Organizing from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 168 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-5857-0 • Hardback • February 2018 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-5859-4 • Paperback • November 2019 • $46.99 • (£36.00)

978-1-4985-5858-7 • eBook • February 2018 • $44.50 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Political Science / History & Theory, History / Social History, Political Science / American Government / National, Religion / Atheism, Social Science / Social Movements

Author

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

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I
1. “Our Hands Are Tied”: Atheism’s (So-Called) Golden Age
2. “One-Man Organizations”: Post-War Freethought Societies
3. “An Action Organization”: Repertoires and Political Organizing
Part II
1. “This Godless Communism”: Discourses and Rights Claims
2. “The Friendly Atheist”: Organizing Online to Offline
3. “Make Politicians Take Notice”: Secular Lobbying in Washington
Conclusion

Reviews

Meagher manages to pack an evocative outline of 150 years of American atheism into 150 pages, and Atheists in American Politics is an invaluable addition to any introduction to the history of American secularism.
— Journal of Church and State

Each chapter of Atheists in American Politics provides a clear introduction to critical moments throughout the history of atheist organizing. Meagher is successful in tying together different threads of political struggle, a thematic strength due to his attention to familiar social movement territories such as resources and effectiveness. . . . His conceptual framework into the analysis, his attention to detail and the subsequent analysis of contemporary atheist activism advances our understanding of crucial moments in the maturation of the American atheist movement. Overall, this is a fascinating book which should find an audience among scholars engaged with social movement approaches to both religion and

nonreligion.
— Mobilization

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 20^th 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.
— Penny Lewis, CUNY