The Gathering of Infidels: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association

In 1899, a small group of men under the leadership of Charles Albert Watts founded the Rationalist Press Association (RPA) in London. Its mission was, among other goals, to promote rationalism and secular education as well as to publish free-thought books at affordable prices. For more than a century the RPA has served as a bastion of reason in an often irrational world.

Its honorary associates have included such twentieth-century luminaries as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, J. B. S. Haldane, Julian Huxley, Somerset Maugham, Bertrand Russell, and H. G. Wells, as well as others. THE GATHERING OF INFIDELS, the first history of the RPA, delves into its archives to tell a fascinating and illuminating story.

Experienced freethought historian Bill Cooke discusses the association's achievements and ideas and profiles the key people involved in its development. At the same time, he does not shy away from its difficulties and controversies, offering a critical perspective that rationalists will certainly appreciate.

He covers the historical background of the RPA's formation, the crucial role played by Charles Albert Watts, the association's enormous publishing successes, the vicissitudes of war and peace, and the evolution of rationalist ideas. The appendices include RPA-related bibliographic information as well as listings of its honorary associates, office holders, and conference topics and speakers.

This scholarly yet highly readable and witty history of the Rationalist Press Association will be welcomed by all who value reason as humanity's best hope for the future.