force in the early civil rights movement were the black churches of the South", she has also pointed out that the movement was not intrinsically religious, and that in fact, the white churches of the South were strongly opposed to it. Susan Jacoby has also highlighted the link and similarities between secularism and feminism. She has noticed that both movements gain and lose strength throughout history and are constantly renewed or revived by later generations. She has used as an example the case of Thomas Paine, whose ideas were prominent in the 18th century but which were almost forgotten by later generations until the last quarter of the 19th century, when they were revived by Robert G. Ingersoll. According to Jacoby, secularism is also important in feminism because the latter implies dealing with "overturning ideas that very conservative religions, and many parts of the Bible, have proclaimed about women for thousands of years". Jacoby has argued that the idea of anti-Catholicism being "a significant force in American life today is a complete canard, perpetrated by theologically and politically right-wing Roman Catholics . . . and aimed at anyone who stands up to the Church's continuing attempts to impose its values on all Americans." Books Moscow Conversations (1972) The Friendship Barrier: Ten Russian Encounters (1972, British edition) Inside Soviet Schools (1974) The Possible She (1979) Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge (1983) Soul to Soul: A Black Russian American Family, 1865-1992 (with Yelena Khanga) (1994) Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past (2000) Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (2004) The Age of American Unreason, Pantheon (2008) Alger Hiss and the Battle for History (2009) Never Say Die (2011) The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought (2013) Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion (2016) Why Baseball Matters (2018) See also List of atheist authors Freethought References External links Susan Jacoby article archives, The Washington Post Interview with Susan Jacoby by Stephen McKiernan, from Binghamton University Libraries Centre for the Study of the 1960s. 1945 births Living people American former Christians American people of Irish descent American people of Jewish descent American skeptics American atheism activists Former Roman Catholics Michigan State University alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American women journalists People from Okemos, Michigan Writers from Michigan