2014 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Marty’s work is a history of the role of the tradition of American unbelief [deism, skepticism, agnosticism and atheism] in the self-definition of American religion. The major infidels [Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, Robert Owen, Robert Ingersoll and Clarence Darrow] succeeded like other less militant ones, not only in mobilizing the opposition to the churches, but also in defining the churches’ own sense of mission and purpose. This is the history of these infidels in the American history.