Dean Grodzins-currently serving as Associate Professor of History at Meadville Lombard Theological School-has accepted the offer of the Massachusetts Historical Society/National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. This fellowship will allow Grodzins to focus solely on the completion of the second volume of his biography of Theodore Parker, American Heretic. "The fellowship will speed up considerably the completion of my book," said Grodzins. "I hope, in fact, to have a complete draft of the book completed by the fall of 2006."

The first book in the series was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2002, and was subtitled, "Theodore Parker and Transcendentalism." The subtitle of the new volume will be "Theodore Parker, Democracy, and Civil War." The subject will be Parker's later career, from 1846 when he was installed as minister of the 28th Congregational Society in Boston (a new organization created to give him a pulpit in the city), until his death in 1860. Grodzins says he will be emphasizing Parker's activities as a public intellectual, antislavery activist, and major theorist of American democracy, as well as providing a new picture of the bitter political conflict within the North that preceded the civil war.

The Rev. Dr. Lee Barker, president of Meadville Lombard Theological School, says he is "glad Dean will be able to complete this important project for it is destined to serve all of Unitarian Universalism."

Contact:
Tina Porter tporter@meadville.edu
(773) 256-3000 ext. 236