The sudden and steady growth of scholarly interest in atheism and secularism that came in the wake of the New Atheism (an anti-religious movement spearheaded most notably by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens) has tended to focus on the content of atheist ideologies, the nature of organized secular activism, and the growth of the ‘nones’ (those who report no religious affiliation). Leigh Eric Schmidt presents Village Atheists as something different: a historical examination of some of the “flesh-and-blood freethinkers who made the village atheist such a culturally resonant figure” in the nineteenth century (16–17). While the “village atheist” referred to here is a stereotypical, isolated contrarian within a religious community, the term belies the fact that freethought was a national movement with lecture tours drawing attendance sometimes in the hundreds and, in rare cases, thousands. Schmidt's book thus serves as an important entry in the history of the secular movement and the place of atheists in American society.

This is not a sociological work that investigates the lives and beliefs of regular atheists, but a portrait of some exceptional people who achieved a high degree of influence in American secularism and were, in their own little worlds, celebrities. Specifically, the book's four chapters offer biographies of four freethinkers: Samuel Putnam, a minister turned secular activist who toured the national freethought lecture circuit with the likes of Robert Ingersoll; the cartoonist Watson Heston, who lampooned religion for leading freethought publications of the day; Charles B. Reynolds, another preacher who lost his faith and was eventually tried and convicted of blasphemy for his combative public lectures on the irrationality of religion; and Elmina Drake Slenker, an advocate for reproductive rights and sexual liberation who was tried and convicted of obscenity, a favored strategy for silencing outspoken secularists at the time.

The choice to focus on some lesser-known figures was wise (we probably do not need another book about Robert Ingersoll) and gives us a new window into a fascinating and neglected slice of American history. The individual biographies are absorbing in their own right, but more importantly, a bigger picture is gradually revealed through these intimate portraits of a handful of freethinkers. By the end of the book we have a strong sense of the nature and extent of secular activism in this historical context, much of which still resonates today. Courtroom drama features prominently in the book, as Schmidt outlines several high-profile instances of blasphemy and obscenity charges laid at the feet of secularists, who had some victories and some defeats, and regardless of their legal standing, always encountered the ire of their neighbors and fellow Americans. Atheists have clearly experienced discrimination from law enforcement, government, and their fellow citizens, confirming current scholarship claiming that atheists have historically been excluded from constructions of American identity. Schmidt's story also gives credence to contemporary atheists’ self-perception as an embattled minority.

For those following the trends of contemporary organized secularism in America, the tensions and debates among secularists that Schmidt outlines will feel very familiar. One of the major disagreements in the secular movement today is between proponents of a more confrontational form of atheism that rejects religion in all its forms (the New Atheism takes this approach) and others who favor a more accommodating stance toward religious groups that are not hostile to science and embrace liberal values. Schmidt identifies the same debates in the chapter on Watson Heston, whose illustrations provoked the same kind of discussion that emerged in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre: “Heston stoked debates about caricature and religious insult, blasphemy and free expression, combative atheism and liberal accommodation in ways that remain strikingly familiar” (169). While most secularists seemed to approve of Heston's no-holds-barred approach, he nonetheless was the center of a debate about “the relative merits of ridicule for advancing the cause” (153). New Atheists like Richard Dawkins have similarly been criticized by some secular activists who view their aggressive approach as mean-spirited and counterproductive. More generally, the book highlights that secular activism was alive and well in the nineteenth century, and thus today's movement is in fact not a “new” atheism at all.

Schmidt's epilogue deals with freethought from the early twentieth century up to the New Atheism. While the bases are mostly covered, it is obviously a very cursory introduction to what atheists have been up to for the past hundred years, and it points to a need for more works that cover some of these other periods in similar detail. The epilogue is a teaser for a book I would like to read, and had me wishing that Schmidt had done a little more to outline the larger context of secular activism. As it is, we are left to piece it together on our own based on the strands that we are presented with in the stories of the four major characters. The effect is that we do learn a lot about the secular movement, but a more systematic presentation and analysis of the history of organized secularism is greatly needed—though Schmidt clearly states that his book is not intended to serve that purpose.

Throughout the book, Schmidt maintains his critical position on the competing myths of “Protestant hegemony” and “ascendant secular liberality” (173) that characterize the views of strong detractors and supporters of the secularization thesis, arguing that his ground-level work reveals a messy reality that does not easily fit into either narrative, even for a single individual, since several of his characters had back-and-forth internal struggles between faith and freethought for much of their lifetimes. This richly detailed study, grounded in historical realities, is a useful challenge to ideologically inflected theories claiming either that religion is here to stay or on its way out the door.