Freethinking books

[realisticphish]

I just finished "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" by Susan Jacoby (which I HIGHLY recommend) and I got to thinking (ha).

What are some other good freethought/atheist/non-believer/whatever books? I've read Dawkins, but I'm really more interested in the 19th century freethinkers (especially Robert Ingersoll), and the history of the movement in general, rather than the philosophy (which I've read plenty of).

Any ideas for some infidel historical reading?

[enlightenment]

1. American Infidel is Ingersoll's biography; it is

older, though (1962).

You might enjoy
'Half-Hours with Freethinkers' by Charles Bradleigh (1865).
'A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations' by J. M. Wheeler (1889).

A lot of the older works (including Anthony Collins, if you want to go back to the early 18th century - he was one of the first to raise the topic in print, without apology - though he still tread carefully) are available in full view through Google Books.

You might start with the Wheeler book and see where it leads you!

[realisticphish]

4. I actually have American Infidel on hold at the library

I'll check out the others, thanks!

[RebelOne]

2. American Atheist has 171 books to choose from.

http://atheists.org/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

[realisticphish]

5. cool resource, thanks nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. If you don't mind watching video on computers, and have the bandwidth

you might be interested in "A Brief History of Disbelief", a 3 x 1 hour documentary series by Jonathan Miller, made about 5 years ago for the BBC (shown on some PBS stations in the US, I think). A Google search will find BitTorrent, Google video and YouTube clips (the last annoying cut into 10 minutes segments, of course).

[realisticphish]

6. i'll check it out, thanks