A History of Atheism in Britain From Hobbes to Russell

Berman (philosophy, Trinity College, U. of Dublin) shows that although avowed atheism appeared surprisingly late--1782 in Britain--there were covert atheists in the middle 17th century. By tracing developments from so early a date, Berman goes some way toward naturalizing atheism, as well as giving an account of an important strand of intellectual history. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR