Though an atheist, LeDrew criticises the movement of New Atheism, which arose in the 2000s with the "Four Horsemen" Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens as prominent figures.

[1] Author Stephen LeDrew, who is Canadian,[2] was a postdoctoral researcher in sociology at the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society of Uppsala University at the time of the book's publication.

[9] He argues that the rise of New Atheism in the mid-2000s could be attributed to the war on terror, an increasing American Christian right, child sex abuse revelations in the Catholic Church, and declining religiosity across America.

[5] He discusses other New Atheist figures such as Steven Pinker, A. C. Grayling, Victor J. Stenger, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Lawrence Krauss as well as laypeople in the mass movement.

[4] Library Journal's Christian Graham praised it as "an intelligent and sensitive treatise of contemporary atheism", recommending its "well-researched investigation" to "curious readers of all kinds".

[6] Tom Flynn, writing in Free Inquiry, found LeDrew to be "insightful" on the topic of New Atheism and "thought-provoking" in his taxonomy of the modern atheist movement; however, he wrote that the book is "marred by significant historical, analytic, and conceptual errors".

[8] David Hoelscher of CounterPunch praised the book for its interviews, "non-technical" prose style, "excellent introduction" to the main figures of New Atheism and for "interesting and relevant evidence" that the movement is conservative on gender issues.