The Best of Robert Ingersoll

The name of Robert Green Ingersoll, while virtually unknown to the vast American public, needs little introduction to freethinkers.  The foremost lecturer and religious skeptic of his time, Ingersoll (1833-1899) delivered timely and hard-hitting indictments of religion and the Bible to immense audiences.  Devout believers of the time attempted to dig up something that hinted of scandal but were unable to do so; Ingersoll was a devoted family man who served his country during the Civil War and lived a truly exemplary life.

Ingersoll’s writings and speeches were models of anti-fundamentalist rhetoric.  His elocution, never pompous, often drew cheers from his listeners and elicited fear from his opponents.

This book serves as a brief introduction to Ingersoll’s work.  It was carefully culled from the huge and imposing twelve volume set of his complete works.

The problem with this, as in most anthologies, is that in only sampling Ingersoll piecemeal one is left with the impression that the substance of the topic has been missed.  Certainly this is not the fault of the editor; his choices for inclusion are generally quite good.  However Ingersoll’s speeches, usually delivered without notes and often without any kind of preparation, flowed so simply and logically that to remove any passage from its context seems, if you will pardon the expression, almost a “sin.”  In order to get the real flavor of Ingersoll’s “best,” we must not look to anthologies, but instead read the speeches and lectures in their entirety.  Only in this way can the man’s genius be fully recognized and appreciated.

Nonetheless,there is much of value here; any Ingersoll is better than none at all!  The introductory biography, though brief, is quite good, and the editor display considerable perspicacity in choosing statements that seem relevant to today’s increasingly religiously saturated society.  Some of the briefest comments are the most valuable, since they are easy to digest and memorize and can serve to give freethinkers an authoritative edge when debating opponents.

This book can serve as an excellent introduction to a brilliant and humane man whose work, though delivered in the flowery prose of an earlier era, carries a timeless message to all willing to take that time to read it.  Ingersoll’s prose, is in fact the very quality that most endears him to us.  The pity is that most of our fellow citizens, the ones who need to read him the most, remain ignorant of this amazing man and his time.