In this lively and engaging new history, Granquist brings to light not only the institutions that Lutherans founded and sustained but the people that lived within them. This shows the complete storynot only the policies and the politics, but the piety and the practical experiences of the Lutheran men and women who lived and worked in the American context. Bringing the story all the way to the present day, Granquist ably covers the full range of Lutheran expressions, bringing order and clarity to a complex and vibrant tradition.

This book gives today's Lutherans a sense of heritage, identity and continuity, a sense of self-understanding. Readers will see themselves as part of a family. They can identify with the struggles, hopes, and frustrations of wave after wave of immigrants adapting to the strange new world of America and at the same time trying to preserve all they had known and loved and brought with them from the homeland. The genius of the entire volume is that it points beyond family memories to an ongoing and continuing life of which we and our children are a living part. Contributors: Theodore G. Tappert, Eugene Fevold, Fred W. Meuser, H. George Anderson, August R. Suelflow, and E. Clifford Nelson.

By virtue of Lutheranism's spiritual heritage and identity in America as an immigrant church, Lutherans are specially placed to give hopeful leadership about the controversial issue of immigration in the United States today. They Are Us explores the biblical, historical, theological, and cultural foundations for Lutheran participation in a public conversation that has important implications for the future of this nation. Based on professional experience and grounded in Christian faith, the authors make the case for immigration reform and call the church to a mission of evangelical hospitality.

I don't know much about Lutherans and that is one reason I've told stories about them over the years, so I could learn.---From the Introduction Based on Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon monologues, Life among the Lutherans is a collection of stories about the struggles of ordinary people in an imperfect world, the life and work of the pastor who leads them, and the church to whose high standards they aspire in the small town they call home. The stories in Life among the Lutherans reflect everything Keillor fans have come to expect of this master storyteller. Some are familiar, including the quintessentially Lutheran "95 Theses" from Lake Wobegon Days, others are new. Laugh out loud about the church directory filled with photos that are just plain awful. Share the moment when Pastor Ingqvist receives a leather-bound copy of his sermons. Keillor's command of every little detail of life in Lake Wobegon is bound to entertain, surprise, and make readers---even those who aren't Lutheran---feel right at home in the mythical community where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

Historians usually look for the origins of American political culture among English-speaking people and British constitutional and legal sources. Yet German immigrants to the colonies also contributed to - and developed for themselves - an American political consciousness. In Palatines, Liberty, and Property A.G. Roeber focuses on this neglected subject and explains why so many Germans, when they faced critical choices in 1776, became active supporters of the patriot cause. Employing a variety of German-language sources, Roeber explores German conceptions of personal and public property in the context of cultural and religious beliefs, village life, and family concerns. He follows all the major German migration streams, beginning with the Palatines in New York and including Germans who settled in Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. Roeber's study of German-American ideas about liberty and property provides a unique perspective within a growing historiography on the transfer of culture and beliefs from Europe and Africa to America.