American Freethinker: Elihu Palmer and the Struggle for Religious Freedom in the New Nation

by Kirsten Fischer

The first comprehensive biography of Elihu Palmer tells the life story of a freethinker who was at the heart of the early United States' protracted contest over religious freedom and free speech.

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:...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812252713
• ISBN13: 9780812252712
• Release Date: December 2020
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.9" x 9.1"