Biography

Wayne te Brake is an expert in how societies accommodate religious difference in the wake of civil or religious war. He believes that coexistence is the rule, not the exception, in history, and that religious groups can coexist in spite of deep-seated polarity or hatred. Te Brake believes that ordinary citizens and voluntary associations play critical roles in establishing pluralistic civil societies. He has organized a group of historians to study the aftermath of religious wars that took place during the 16th and 17th centuries. The study is focusing on tensions between the Muslim Ottoman Empire and the Christian states of western and central Europe, as well as between Roman Catholics and Protestants at the time of the Reformation. He is quick to draw parallels between this period in history and current conflicts.

Resources by this expert

• Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics, 1500-1700 (University of California Press, 1998)
• Regents and Rebels: The Revolutionary World of an Eighteenth-Century Dutch City (Basil Blackwell, 1989)

• The Journal News, by Wayne te Brake, January 29, 2005 "Religion and politics in post-war Iraq"
• History News Network, January 12, 2004: "King Chirac: Off with their scarves," .
• The Journal News: “Holy wars aren’t new—or holy. Religious rhetoric can cloak political goals, scholars say.” September 23, 2001. (Westchester County, New York).

Organizational links for this expert

• Purchase College
  
  
• The Institute for the Study of Europe

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