The way I have conceived this book, I would hope the browsing reader will open up to page one and immediately be taken by the story.The opening pages put the reader in seventeenth-century Amsterdam and in the middle of proceedings by religious authorities to ban this “book forged in hell.” I intentionally start in a very intimate way with the controversy and uproar occasioned by the book, focusing on a couple of individuals who were involved in trying to put an end to the “pestilential publication”; I figured this personal approach was a good way to “hook” attention. From this initial episode, the story then moves back to the origins of the Treatise, the basic ideas of the work, the circumstances of its publication, and finally to scandal it caused.I believe Spinoza’s Treatise remains one of the most relevant and important works in the history of philosophy. To the extent that we are committed to a secular, tolerant society, one which is characterized by a devotion both to freedom and to treating our fellow human beings with justice and charity, we are Spinoza’s ideological heirs. I very much hope that this book inspires people to go back and read Spinoza’s treatise for themselves, and perhaps that it even invigorates the fight for toleration, justice, social welfare, and a recognition that a modern society needs to be both liberal and secular and focused on the well-being of its citizens.