What’s God Got To Do With It?: Robert Ingersoll on Free Thought, Honest Talk and the Separation of Church and State

Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) is one of the great lost figures in United States history, all but forgotten at just the time America needs him most. An outspoken and unapologetic agnostic, fervent champion of the separation of church and state, and tireless advocate of the rights of women and African Americans, he drew enormous audiences in the late nineteenth century with his lectures on ‘freethought’. His admirers included Mark Twain and Thomas A. Edison, who said Ingersoll had ‘all the attributes of a perfect man’ and went so far as to make an early recording of his voice.