| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 91.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair. By Bryan F. Le Beau. (New York: New York University Press, 2003. x, 387 pp. $29.95, ISBN 0-8147-5171-7.)
In this judicious work, Bryan F. Le Beau examines the atheist philosophy and tumultuous life of Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919–1995), "an American original" (p. 17) who was once stigmatized as "The Most Hated Woman in America" (pp. 118–19). While Le Beau's book is largely biographical, it also explores the history of freethinking, Cold War American culture, the issue of church and state, and gender relations.	1
O'Hair became notorious after filing a 1960 lawsuit (Murray v. Curlett) against the Baltimore public schools, which had required her older son, William, to recite the Lord's Prayer. Subsequently, she crusaded for decades to advance the cause that animated her most—atheism. O'Hair's zealotry, combined with a law degree and savvy media instincts, helped non-theists gain a measure of respectability that was often outweighed by her notoriety.	. . .

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