{"product_id":"american-freethinker-elihu-palmer-and-the-struggle-for-religious-freedom-in-the-new-nation-hardback-9780812252712","title":"American Freethinker; Elihu Palmer and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in the New Nation (Hardback) 9780812252712","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eAmerican Freethinker\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eElihu Palmer and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in the New Nation\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eKirsten Fischer (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812252712\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 18 December 2020\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e320 pages, 15 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.658 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"Given the paucity of information about Palmer and his limited literary output, it wouldn't seem at first glance that he was a very promising subject for a full-length biography. Fischer, however, does a masterful job of filling out the book by carefully contextualizing Palmer's life and work in his era...Using the life of Elihu Palmer as its entrée, Kirsten Fischer's \u003ci\u003eAmerican Freethinker\u003c\/i\u003e serves as an admirable introduction to the history of Enlightenment-inspired radical religion in the United States\" (Nova Religio) \"[E]xciting...absorbing [and] crisply written...Elihu Palmer (1764–1806), when remembered at all, is often sidelined as a firebrand or crank. This book reintroduces him as a charismatic, resilient go-getter whose vitalist cosmology reveals the unexpected philosophical variety within early American nonreligion...American Freethinker energizes the study of early American nonreligion by detailing the life and views of a significant Deist who, properly understood, upends the common misconception that Deists uniformly believed in a watchmaker God.\" (Early American Literature) \"\u003ci\u003eAmerican Freethinker\u003c\/i\u003e is the first full-length study of Palmer—a long overdue treatment of this intriguing figure.\" (Church History) \"\u003ci\u003eAmerican Freethinker\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterful account of a fascinating but understudied figure. Kirsten Fischer has uncovered a trove of new information about Elihu Palmer and has written a definitive biography that will be of interest to specialists, students, and general readers interested in the religious, cultural, or political history of the early republic.\" (Seth Cotlar, author of \u003ci\u003eTom Paine's America: The Rise and Fall of Trans-Atlantic Radicalism in the Early Republic\u003c\/i\u003e) \"With crystalline prose, Kirsten Fischer rescues Elihu Palmer from obscurity and, more importantly, sets his ideas against the broad religious and intellectual contexts of the early United States. Her investigation extends beyond one iconoclastic freethinker to show the vibrancy of the period's intellectual climate and the dynamism of freethought. This is a book of enduring significance.\" (Erik R. Seeman, author of \u003ci\u003eSpeaking with the Dead in Early America\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first comprehensive biography of Elihu Palmer, who was at the heart of the early United States' protracted contest over religious freedom and free speech\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When the United States was new, a lapsed minister named Elihu Palmer shared with his fellow Americans the radical idea that virtue required no religious foundation. A better source for morality, he said, could be found in the natural world: the interconnected web of life that inspired compassion for all living things. Religions that deny these universal connections should be discarded, he insisted. For this, his Christian critics denounced him as a heretic whose ideas endangered the country.\u003cbr\u003e Although his publications and speaking tours made him one of the most infamous American freethinkers in his day, Elihu Palmer has been largely forgotten. No cache of his personal papers exists and his book has been long out of print. Yet his story merits telling, Kirsten Fischer argues, and not only for the dramatic account of a man who lost his eyesight before the age of thirty and still became a book author, newspaper editor, and itinerant public speaker. Even more intriguing is his encounter with a cosmology that envisioned the universe as interconnected, alive with sensation, and everywhere infused with a divine life force.\u003cbr\u003e Palmer's \"heresy\" tested the nation's recently proclaimed commitment to freedom of religion and of speech. In this he was not alone. Fischer reveals that Palmer engaged in person and in print with an array of freethinkers—some famous, others now obscure. The flourishing of diverse religious opinion struck some of his contemporaries as foundational to a healthy democracy while others believed that only a strong Christian faith could support democratic self-governance. This first comprehensive biography of Palmer draws on extensive archival research to tell the life story of a freethinker who was at the heart of the new nation's protracted contest over religious freedom and free speech—a debate that continues to resonate today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrologue. \"A Religious Tornado\"\u003cbr\u003e Part I. Expansive Christianity\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Steady Habits Upended\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. A Liberal Education\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. \"All is Alive\"\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Freelance Universalist\u003cbr\u003e Part II. The Making of an \"Infidel\"\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Palmer's Rubicon\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Hard Fate\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7. Fellowship\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 8. Sensitive Atoms\u003cbr\u003e Part III. Lightning Rod\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 9. Specter of Infidelity\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 10. Controversy Among Freethinkers\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 11. Weaponizing Freethought\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 12. The Best Kind of Revolution\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue. Into the Future\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52559244558616,"sku":"9780812252712","price":37.56,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/american-freethinker-elihu-palmer-and-the-struggle-for-religious-freedom-in-the-new-nation-hardback-9780812252712","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}