Person

Peter Manseau

Bylines

A Country Between

In 1782, American revolutionaries massacred 96 indigenous Moravian Christians. The victims had attempted to avoid taking sides in the war.

by Peter Manseau via Under Gods on July 4, 2026
Why So Many Guns on Christmas Cards? Because Jesus was ‘Manly and Virile.’

Muscular Christianity — with scriptural interpretations that can favor “stand your ground” over “turn the other cheek” — has a long tradition in the U.S.

by Peter Manseau via Washington Post
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on December 14, 2021
The Complex Role Faith Played for Incarcerated Japanese-Americans During World War II

Smithsonian curator of religion Peter Manseau weighs in on a history that must be told.

by Peter Manseau via Smithsonian Magazine on February 15, 2019
Why Thomas Jefferson Owned a Qur’an

Islam in America dates to the founding fathers, says Smithsonian’s religion curator Peter Manseau.

by Peter Manseau via Smithsonian Magazine on January 31, 2018
Meet Mr. Mumler, the Man Who “Captured” Lincoln’s Ghost on Camera

When America’s first aerial cameraman met an infamous spirit photographer, the chemistry was explosive.

by Peter Manseau via Smithsonian Magazine on October 10, 2017
Father Worship

Hamilton is less a new vision of the past than a translation of the sacred stories of American civil religion into the vernacular.

by Peter Manseau via The Baffler
This publication restricts nonsubscriber access to some or all of its articles.
on September 6, 2016

The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost

The Jefferson Bible: A Biography

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The front cover of Peter Manseau's new book, featuring a photo of Jefferson's bible.

Doubting Thomas

Is Jefferson's Bible evidence that the Founding Fathers engaged with scripture to birth a Christian nation? Or that they sought to foster a new secular order?

by Ed Simon via Los Angeles Review of Books on November 6, 2022

A collage featuring Thomas Jefferson and passages cut from the Bible.

What Thomas Jefferson Could Never Understand About Jesus

Jefferson revised the Gospels to make Jesus more reasonable, and lost the power of his story.

by Vinson Cunningham via The New Yorker on December 28, 2020

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