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Poet of a long gone America

The American journalist Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting With Jesus, who died in 2011, had a unique voice – folksy, authentic, radical. He was often called the "redneck revolutionary". He never lost sight of his poor roots in Winchester Virginia, and never gave up registering his dismay at America's abiding class divisions. Owen Jones reviews his final book, Rainbow Pie; A memoir of redneck America.

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At the altar of non-belief: philosopher Alain de Botton proposes a temple for atheists (27 January): Alain de Botton has been accused of many things – of being superficial, self-absorbed and most recently (by Terry Eagleton) "banal" – but no one would call him stupid. The PR campaign for his latest book Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion, is a case... Read full post At the altar of non-belief: philosopher Alain de Botton proposes a temple for atheists

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A theocracy on the Nile? (January 2012): The triumph of the Islamist parties in Egypt's elections has raised fears of a religious takeover of the state. Austin Mackell reports from Cairo
Against the barbarians (January 2012): Hannah Arendt’s humanism was not the opposite of religion but of self-absorption and totalitarianism, says Finn Bowring
Blots on a landscape (January 2012): Martin Rowson on the genius of Ronald Searle’s line
The mind ironic (December 2011): Matthew Adams remembers winning a £10 bet, and gaining a lifetime's inspiration from Christopher Hitchens

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From the Archive

Faultline (March/April 2011): From the Philippines to West Africa the tenth parallel, the line of latitude 700 miles north of the equator, is a geographical frontline between Christianity and Islam. Eliza Griswold has researched the resulting conflict for seven years. This is her dispatch from Nigeria

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In the January/February 2012 issue

Cover of New Humanist Volume 127 Issue 1 January/February 2012

Inside the heresy files: Interrogation. Surveillance. Ethnic profiling. Censorship. The words come from 21st-century headlines, but they have an ancient pedigree. Cullen Murphy on how the Inquisition ignited the modern police state
In God They Trust: As the US enters primary season ahead of the 2012 elections, Abby Ohlheiser assesses the chances of the “God and Guns” Republicans hoping to challenge Obama in November
Book review: Rainbow Pie: A memoir of redneck America: Owen Jones enjoys a melancholy protrait of America's underclass