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Abstract This book examines a forgotten but pivotal cultural conflict in late nineteenth-century America, when evangelical Protestantism dominated public life but faced a rising challenge from freethinkers, feminists, and sexual radicals. It highlights the struggle between reformers who demanded personal freedom, gender equality, and secular governance, and crusaders like Anthony Comstock who sought to preserve religious orthodoxy and moral tradition. The book emphasizes how figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton expanded feminism beyond suffrage to include sexual and economic liberation, while freethought leaders rejected the notion of America as a Christian nation. It shows how reformers’ calls for divorce reform, reproductive rights, and freedom of thought collided with a moral panic determined to suppress them. Finally, the book reveals how this clash over belief, sex, and power shaped the nation’s cultural foundations and continues to resonate in modern debates over religion, censorship, and reproductive autonomy.