"The First Government in the World which Broke Church and State Apart"

"While it's possible that there was some other civilization in the long arc of human history in which religion wasn't a matter of governance, Williams' colony apparently was the first time the concept was put into lasting practice within the European sphere. And Barry adeptly traces Williams' political thought through to the Founding Fathers, who more than 150 years later codified that thinking in the 1st Amendment on the Bill of Rights: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'"

Scott Martellein the Los Angeles Times reviews John M. Barry's Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul.