"Ingersoll Dies Smiling"

"While today’s GOP is associated with public displays of faith, the Republican party of Ingersoll’s day was more likely to be the home of freethinkers, such as the churchless Abraham Lincoln. The American public wasn’t ready for overt atheism in elected or appointed office, but Ingersoll’s talent on the stump made his endorsement valuable. Jacoby persuasively argues that Ingersoll fits into the classical liberal tradition, a thread that remains visible, if controversial, in the fabric of the modern Republican party."

Katherine Mangu-Ward in The Weekly Standard reviews Susan Jacoby's The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought.