April 2024 Book Talk | Exhibiting Evangelicalism by Devin Manzullo-Thomas

The Conference on Faith and History Podcast

Exhibiting Evangelicalism provides the first account of the growth and development of historical museums created by white evangelical Christians in the United States over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Exploring the histories of the Museum of the Bible, the Billy Graham Center Museum, the Billy Sunday Home, and Park Street Church, Devin C. Manzullo-Thomas illustrates how these sites enabled religious leaders to develop a coherent identity for their fractious religious movement and to claim the centrality of evangelicalism to American history. In their zeal to craft a particular vision of the national past, evangelicals engaged with a variety of public history practices and techniques that made them major players in the field—including becoming early adopters of public history’s experiential turn.

Enjoy a book talk with Dr. Devin Manzullo-Thomas on his book, Exhibiting Evangelicalism (UMass, 2022). This conversation was moderated by Dr. Joey Cochran, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Wheaton College.