In mid-twentieth century Britain, four intellectuals - Julian Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Malcolm Muggeridge, and Barbara Ward - held sway over popular conceptions of morality. While Huxley and Russell championed ideas informed by agnosticism and atheism, Muggeridge and Ward were adherents to Christianity. In Contesting the Moral High Ground, Paul Phillips reveals how this fundamental dichotomy was representative of British society at the time, and how many of the ideologies promoted by these four moralists are still present today. As world-class public figures in an open forum of debate, Huxley, Russell, Muggeridge, and Ward all achieved considerable public attention, particularly during the turbulent 1960s. Phillips captures the rebellious spirit of the time, detailing how these thinkers exploited the popular media to disseminate ideas on prevailing social issues - from justice and world peace to protection of the environment. Phillips skilfully traces the foundations of their thought to their earlier careers and social movements of previous generations, and shows how many of their approaches were adopted by a host of present-day groups from the Christian Right and Left to the New Atheists and environmentalists. A significant contribution to British intellectual history, Contesting the Moral High Ground provides new insights into the moral philosophies of four of Britain's most influential minds in the twentieth century.

Paul T. Phillips is Senior Research Professor and Professor Emeritus in History at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

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“This book is a credit to the author and to McGill-Queen’s University Press; it is another landmark in its fine History of Religion series.” The Catholic Historical Review

"Contesting the Moral High Ground makes a very significant contribution to both British intellectual history, to the ongoing historiographies of the 'long 1960s,' and to the secularization debate. Also impressive is the author's skillful weaving together of the cultural rebelliousness of the period with his subjects' promotion of specific public moral systems and ethics." Stephen Heathorn, Department of History, McMaster University