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John Witherspoon |
I am looking forward to this lecture on October 13th at Rider University. I hope to see you there.
Here is the press release:
The Lawrence Historical Society presents The 10th Annual Mary Tanner Lecture Sunday, October 13, 2:00 p.m. Sweigart Auditorium, Rider University
NEW JERSEY PRESBYTERIANS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Professor John Fea, Messiah College
One cannot understand the American Revolution in New Jersey and the larger mid-Atlantic without recognizing the vital role played by the leaders and members of the Presbyterian Church. Yet these patriotic Calvinists who, among other things, founded Maidenhead (now Lawrence) are rarely mentioned in the stories we tell about the Revolution in this region. This lecture sets out to correct this oversight by examining the Revolution as a “Presbyterian rebellion.”
John Fea (Ph.D, Stony Brook University, 1999) is Professor of American History and Chair of the History Department at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. His first book, The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), was chosen as the Book of the Year by the New Jersey Academic Alliance and an Honor Book by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. His recent book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011) was one of three finalists for the George Washington Book Prize, one of the largest literary prizes in the United States. His book Why Study History?:Reflecting on the Importance of the Past will appear in 2013.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Rider History Club and Phi Alpha Theta.
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