A Short History of Atheism, Gavin Hyman (I. B. Taurus, London and New York, 2010) xx, 212pp., paperback, £14.99, ISBN 978 1 84885 137 5, hardback, £49.50, ISBN 978 1 84885 136 8.

Gavin Hyman, Lecturer in Religious Studies at Lancaster and a contributor to the Cambridge Companion to Atheism (2006), has provided a much-needed, balanced evaluation of the history of atheism.  He discusses the ideas of the Greeks, Diderot. Descartes, Locke and Berkeley.  He draws on the work of modern writers - Amos Funkenstein, Michael Buckley, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.  In recent years there has been a remarkable degree of interest in atheism, particularly in opposition to the alleged social threat of faith but a notable absence of sophistication and serious analysis and evidence.  Hyman shows the origins of atheism and the historical complexity of debate about belief. 

The book has been written for the general reader and for students rather than academics.  None-the-less a full documentation is provided by end-notes and an extensive bibliography of articles and monographs published in the U.K. and U.S.A. including recent items.  It is a meticulous study lucidly written and deserves to be read widely.  The index reflects the breadth of the author's own reading.  This study is one of its kind and is much to be welcomed by people of any faith or home.