UP FROM SANCTITY

Susan Jacoby tackles the history of the pivotal position of women's rights in the conflict between secularization and various forms of religion.

This is gthe history of the position of women's rights in the conflict between secularization and various forms of religion, beginning with the Jewish Bible, proceeding through the early Christian era, and concentrating, for the most part, on the United States, England, and Europe from the Enlightenment through the present. At the heart of the argument and historical narrative is the conviction that the liberty of women, like freedom of conscience, is a secular and secularist concept. Susan Jacoby is the author of ten books, including her most recent, Never Say Die (Pantheon, 2011), and the New York Times bestseller, The Age of American Unreason (Pantheon, 2008). Jacoby has been the recipient of many grants and awards, from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Washington Post Book World, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Newsday, Harper's, The Nation, Vogue, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and the AARP Magazine, among other publications. She is also the author of the weekly column, "The Spirited Atheist," at the On Faith website published by The Washington Post.