Acknowledgments v Main Dramatis Personae ix Chronology xi Foreword by Robert Forder 1 Introduction 4 Part I—Reform and Rebellion 1. An Inge Street Boy and the Capitalist Who Preached Socialism 11 2. The Roar of the Blast Furnace in a Time of Turmoil 21 3. In Which It Is Hard to Change the Mind of a Midlands Man 29 4. Is It Possible to Be Rational About Religion? 39 Part II—Dare to Be an Atheist 5. An Honest Answer to a Difficult Question 50 6. The Lure of London and a Trial by Tyranny 61 7. How a Prisoner Became the Watchmaker's Nemesis 72 8. The Light of Freedom Shines on a Liberated Blasphemer 81 Part III—Discovering Secularism 9. Fleet Street Ink and the Fight for an Unstamped Press 92 10. Throwing Bombs in the "Springtime of the Peoples" 105 11. How the Idea of Secularism Came Into Being 115 Part IV—A Respectable Man 12. Finding Yourself in Company of the Famous 128 13. She Heard No Evil, but Saw Much 136 14. A Funeral in Wales and Rallying the Faithless 143 15. The High Cost of a Clash of Ideas 152 16. The Co-operative Man Makes a Change of Direction 162 Part V—Goals Gained 17. Charles Bradlaugh, Birth Control and Mrs. Besant 172 18. Going Blind, but Keeping the Vision of a Secular State 183 19. An Innocent in America Finds the Ties That Bind 192 20. "The Queen Is Dead, Long Live the King!" 202 21. A Life, a Legend, a Legacy 211 Epilogue: In Our Time: Secularism Under Siege 221 Chapter Notes 233 Bibliography 247 Index 251