Michael Ruse is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Florida. He is the author or editor of over sixty books, including The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw, Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology, Can a Darwinian be a Christian?, Darwinism as Religion: What Literature tells us about Evolution and On Purpose. Ruse is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the recipient of four honorary degrees.

Part I. Preliminaries: 1. Linguistic History of the Terms 'Atheism' and 'Atheist' Philip Durkin; 2. Histories of Atheism: A History Nathan Alexander; Part II. Atheisms in History: 3. Israel and the Near East Jaco Gericke; 4. Pre-modern Japan Sarah Whylly; 5. Ancient Greece Tim Whitmarsh; 6. The Roman Empire Nicole Hartmann; 7. India - 1500 BCE - 1200 CE Ramkrishna Bhattacharya; 8. Christian Europe Ian Logan; 9. The Islamic World Ilkka Lindstedt; Part III. Reformation, Renaissance, Enlightenment: 10. Reformation Alec Ryrie; 11. Early-modern England: Marlowe, Hobbes et al Jeffrey Collins; 12. Spinoza and the Low Countries Henri Krop; 13. Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century France Alan Charles Kors; 14. The Scientific Revolution Michael Ruse; 15. Scottish enlightenment David McNaughton; 16. Al-Ghazali Shoaib Malik; Part IV. Classical modernity: philosophical and scientific currents: 17. Lives of Jesus and historico-critical scepticism Jeffrey Morrow; 18. Romanticism Ashley Clark; 19. John Stuart Mill Rosario López; 20. The physical sciences Martina Kölbl-Ebert; 21. Charles Darwin Bernard Lightman; 22. Freud and the Unconscious Marsha Hewitt; Part V. Classical Modernity: Social and Political Currents: 23. The French Revolution Xavier Marechaux (SUNY Old Westbury); 24. Freemasons, Atheists, and Anticlericals: Spanish American Struggles for Independence Gregorio Alonso; 25. Marx and Marxisms Andrew McKinnon; 26. Nineteenth-century Russia Victoria Frede; 27. Humanism and Secularism David Nash; 28. Bertrand Russell Dustin Olson; 29. Robert Ingersoll Paul Stob; 30. Early Women's Movement Suvi Karila; 31. Early African-American Secularism Christopher Cameron; Part VI. Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Intellectual and Artistic Currents: 32. Analytic Philosophy Sarah Chant; 33. Naturalism John Shook; 34. Existentialism Gary Foster; 35. Postmodernist Philosophies Gavin Hyman; 36. Ayn Rand and Objectivism James Lennox; 37. Darwinism Robert Pennock; 38. Literature Andrew Tate; 39. Music Paul Watt; 40. Visual Arts Richard Richards; 41. Film and Television Christopher Barnett; Part VII. Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-first Centuries: Case-studies: 42. Latin America Germain McKenzie; 43. Modern China Lan Li; 44. Contemporary China Fenggang Yang; 45. India Renny Thomas; 46. The Soviet Union Victoria Smolkin and Sonja Luehrmann; 47. Modern Germany Todd Weir; 48. The Nordic and Baltic Countries Teemu Taira, Atko Remmel and Anton Jansson; 49. USA Eric Chalfant; 50. The Pacific Northwest Tina Block and Lynn Marks; 51. Tunisia Yosr Ben Slima; 52. Southern Africa Leo Igwe; 53. Traditional Societies Benjamin Purzyck and Richard Sosis; Part VIII. Emerging Atheisms in the Twenty-first Century: 54. New Atheism Christopher Cotter; 55. The Internet and the Social Media Revolution Teemu Tiara; 56. The Atheist Spring? Emerging Unbelief in the Islamic World Karin van Nieuwkerk; 57. Intersectional Atheism: Sex, Gender and Race Melanie Brewster, Wei Motulsky, and Anthea Chan; 58. Religion for Atheists? Transhumanism, Mindfulness, and Atheist Churches Jacqui Frost; 59. Atheism Throughout the World Stephen Bullivant; Part IX. Conclusion: 60. Reflections Michael Ruse.

A collection of essays offering an authoritative and up to date account on the history of atheism.