Talks in the Othmer: The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn

In their new book, The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn, historians Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler tell the story of nineteenth-century Brooklyn's domination by upper-class and middle-class Protestants with roots in Puritan New England. This lively history describes the unraveling of the control they wielded as more ethnically diverse groups moved into the "City of Churches" during the twentieth century, transforming Brooklyn in ways that reflect a greater national narrative. Join them as they unwind a history, both uniquely Brooklyn and quintessentially American, about Brooklyn's evolution from Protestant enclave to ethnic mosaic.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the author or co-author of 12 books, including All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America, Cornell: A History, 1940-2015 (with Isaac Kramnick), Ten Great American Trials (with Faust Rossi), and two previous books co-authored with Stuart Blumin: Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century and The G.I. Bill: A New Deal For Veterans.

Stuart M. Blumin is Professor of American History Emeritus at Cornell University and the former Director of the Cornell in Washington Program. He is a former Fellow of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University and a two-time Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Among his books are The Emergence of the Middle Class, The Urban Threshold, The Encompassing City, and two books co-authored with Glenn C. Altschuler, Rude Republic and The GI Bill.

Center for Brooklyn History's Fall series, Talks in the Othmer, is presented in partnership with New York University's Brooklyn-based 370 Jay Project. Programs take place in CBH's beautiful Othmer Reading Room.

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