Meet the Author Series

Bill R. Douglas will be at The History Center to talk about his award-winning book: The People are Kind. The presentation will be about Iowa's remarkable religious diversity and how that came about. 

What religion the newly opened, recently indigenous, territory of Iowa would become was a matter of concern to German Lutherans, Austrian and French Catholics, and New England Congregationalists.  But their funding proved no match for the myriad of choices Iowans had.  Methodists were everywhere, and Insirationists, Freethinkers, and Meskwakis all added to the chorus suggesting that hegemony was not a possibility and cooperation a better strategy.

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With humor, incisive analysis, and sympathy, Douglas paints a tapestry that contributes not just to religious history but argues for its importance to the history of Iowa.

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