New Sweden Legacy Lecture Series: "Diversity, Conflict, and the Memory Hole: Investigating Philadelphia's History" by Paul Kahan

In this lecture series, explore the fascinating history of the New Sweden Colony and the legacy the settlement and its people had on Philadelphia and beyond. The lectures will be held monthly from January through April. The first three will be held via Zoom, and the last lecture in April will be at the American Swedish Historical Museum. 

Paul Kahan will give the first lecture in the series: "Diversity, Conflict, and the Memory Hole: Investigating Philadelphia's History"

Starting from the perspective that Philadelphia does a terrible job remembering its history, Dr. Paul Kahan identifies several reasons for this and explores several themes that have characterized the Delaware Valley since the seventeenth century. These themes include diversity, conflict, and anti-urbanism, which Kahan argues have shaped Philadelphia's history and still influences its politics, culture, and society to the present. Of particular interest is the long history of Swedish influence in the Delaware Valley, which has been largely forgotten in the public's imagination despite the traces all around us. The talk is based on Kahan's new book Philadelphia: A Narrative History, the first single-volume history of the City of Brotherly Love in over forty years.

This lecture series is presented in partnership with the Swedish Colonial Society, the American Swedish Historical Museum, the Delaware Swedish Colonial Society, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, Old Swedes Historic Site, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the New Sweden Centre, the New Sweden Alliance, the Finnish American Society of the Delaware Valley, and the University of Delaware.