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Further reading

Listed below are a selection of places to go online for further information on some of the figures, groups, movements, and themes explored on this site. Many of them have been invaluable in the research conducted as part of the Humanist Heritage project, and all of those listed below are available online (in some cases a free Internet Archive account is required).

This list is by no means exhaustive, and always growing.

On Humanism

What I Believe, Bertrand Russell (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1925)

What I Believe, E.M. Forster (Hogarth Press, 1939)

The Humanist Frame, ed. Julian Huxley (George Allen & Unwin, 1961)

Objections to Humanism, H.J. Blackham (Constable, 1963)

Humanism, H.J. Blackham (The Harvester Press, 1976)

Humanism in the English Novel, Peter Faulkner (Barnes & Noble, 1976)

Foundations of Humanism, J.P. van Praag (Prometheus, 1982)

Facing the world: An Anthology of Poetry for Humanists, ed. Bet Cherrington (Pemberton, 1989)

Humanist Anthology, ed. Margaret Knight & revised by Jim Herrick (Rationalist Press Association, 1995)

Humanism: Finding Meaning in the Word, Nicolas Walter (Prometheus, 1998)

Humanism: Beliefs and Practices, Jeaneane D. Fowler (Sussex Academic Press, 1999)

On Humanism, Richard Norman (Routledge, 2012)

Why I choose humanism over faith (TED Talk, video), Leo Igwe (2017)

On the Ethical Movement

Social Rights and Duties: Addresses to Ethical Societies, Volume I and Volume II, Leslie Stephen (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1896)

Practical Ethics; a Collection of Addresses and Essays, Henry Sidgwick (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1898)

The Ethical Movement and Women, Zona Vallance (1905)

Faith in Man: the Religion of the Twentieth Century, Gustav Spiller (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1908)

The Ethical Movement Explained, Stanton Coit (1910)

The Ethical Movement: its Principles and Aims, H.J. Bridges (The Union of Ethical Societies, 1911)

The Ethical Movement in Great Britain: a Documentary History, Gustav Spiller (The Farleigh Press, 1934)

Biographical Dictionaries and Reference Works

The World’s Sages, Infidels, and Thinkers, D.M. Bennett (D.M. Bennett, 1876)

The World’s Sages, Thinkers, and Reformers, D.M. Bennett (D.M. Bennett, 1876)

A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of all Ages and Nations, J.M. Wheeler (Progressive Publishing Company, 1889)

Infidel Death-Beds, G.W. Foote (The Truth Seeker Company, 1910)

A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists, Joseph McCabe (Watts & Co., 1920)

On Freethought, Secularism, and Related Subjects

Heroines of Freethought, Sara A. Underwood (Charles P. Somerby, 1876)

A History of Freedom of Thought, J.B. Bury (Henry Holt & Co., 1913)

The Life-Story of a Humanist, F.J. Gould (Watts & Co., 1923)

Victorian Infidels: the Origins of the British Secularist Movement, 1791-1866, Edward Royle (Manchester University Press, 1974)

100 Years of Freethought, David Tribe (Elek, 1976)

The Infidel Tradition from Paine to Bradlaugh, ed. Edward Royle (Macmillan, 1976)

Freethought in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Gordon Stein (Greenwood Press, 1981)

Against the faith: Essays on Deists, Skeptics, and Atheists, Jim Herrick (Prometheus Books, 1985)

African-American Humanism: an anthology, Norm R. Allen Jr. (Prometheus Books, 1991)

Archival Collections


Main image: British Humanist Association bookstall, unknown date. Bishopsgate Institute Archive (BHA/1/15)

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