Muhlenberg s Worlds: Transatlantic Religion, Culture, and Politics in Early America

In recent years, historians have rewritten the origins and development of the United States on a transatlantic and cross-cultural paradigm.  This paradigm emphasizes the enduring ties, despite conflict, between Britain and early America, and takes into account the complex networks that existed to settle the new World between France, Holland, Spain, Africa, and the Caribbean. Oddly, however, the same attention has not yet been fully extended to include the largest single group of European immigrants to North America the Germans.  As part of the celebration of the tercentenary of the birth of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg in 2011, an international array of speakers and participants will meet at the campus of The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia where a considerable collection of Muhlenbergiana is housed, and at the University of Pennsylvania s McNeil Center.  The conference will invite participants to share, develop, and apply the best contemporary historical thinking about German-American immigrants such as Muhlenberg, in light of emerging transatlantic and cross-cultural historical paradigms.