Professor of History
Office: 209 Willingham Hall
Email: ugroetsch@una.edu
Phone: 256.765.4190

Profile

Dr. Groetsch specializes in the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe (ca. 1400 to 1800). Educated at the University of Würzburg, Germany and at Rutgers University, from which he received his doctorate in 2008, he offers courses on the history of Europe from Renaissance to Enlightenment. Groetsch’s first book, Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768): Classicist, Hebraist, Enlightenment Radical in Disguise, appeared with Brill Academic Publishers in March 2015. Drawing on newly discovered manuscript and printed sources in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, English, French, and German, the book provides the first comprehensive portrayal of one of the most erudite and elusive of Enlightenment radicals and illustrates how the religious criticism of radical Enlightenment thinkers, the foundations of our secular age, drew heavily on earlier traditions of Renaissance philology and Christian Hebraism. Groetsch’s current book-length projects include early modern theories of the biblical Exodus and the early modern study of ichthyology.

Education

Ph.D. Rutgers University (2008)
M. S. Instructional Technology and Design, University of North Alabama (2023)
B.A. University of Würzburg, Germany (1996)

Recent Courses Taught

HI 101/102                         World History to/since 1500       
HI 490/590                         The Enlightenment World
HI 301W                             History and Historical Research  
HI 390                                History of Modern Germany       
HI 423/523                         Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789             
HI 425/525                         The Revolutionary Age, 1789–1848
HI 599                                Hooliganism in European Football
HI 605                                Historiography and Methodology
HI 640                                Working Class Culture
HI 622                                Life of Jesus in Scholarship 

Selected Publications

BOOKS

Hermann Samuel Reimarus: Classicist, Hebraist, Enlightenment Radical in Disguise (Brill, 2015)

Reviewed in:

1. Informationsmittel (IFB) (2016) [Till Kinzel]
2. Philosophisches Jahrbuch (2016) [Hannes Kerber]
3. Jahrbuch für Kommunikationsgeschichte (2016) [Fleming Schock]
4. Journal of Theological Studies (2017) [Nathan McDonald]
5. Das Achtzehnte Jahrhundert (2017) [Engelhard Weigl]
6. Erudition and the Republic of Letters (2017) [Joachim Whaley]

In progress: “Archaeologies of the Exodus, 1500–Present” (Monograph)

ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

“Quail or Locust? What the Israelites Ate in the Desert.” In Hiob Ludolf and Johann Michael Wansleben: Oriental Studies, Politics, and History between Gotha and Africa, 1650-1700.Edited by Asaph Ben-Tov, Jan Loop, and Martin Mulsow, 297-318. Leiden and New York: Brill, 2024.

Review of The Rebirth of Revelation: German Theology in an Age of Reason and History, 1750-1850, by Tuska Benes. In Central European History 56.3 (September 2023), 475-476.

“Digging without Dirt: Adriaan Reland's Exploration of the Holy Land.” In The Orient in Utrecht: Adriaan Reland (1676-1718), Arabist, Cartographer, Antiquarian and Scholar of Comparative Religion. Edited by Bart Jaski, Christian Lange, Anna Pytlowany, and Henk J. van Rinsum, 173-218. Leiden and New York: Brill, 2021.

“The Devil in the Details: The Case of Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768).” In Knowledge and Profanation: Transgressing the Boundaries of Religion in Premodern Scholarship. Edited  by Asaph ben Tov and Martin Mulsow, 273–296. Leiden and New York: Brill, 2019.

Review of An Age of Infidels. The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States, by Eric R. Schlereth. In Church History and Religious Culture 98 (January 2019), 477–521.

“Hermann Samuel Reimarus, the Jewish priests of the Old Testament and the trope of imposture.” Intellectual History Review 28:1 (2018), 185–199.

“Adversus Haereticos: Sebastian Edzard's Epic Battles for Souls.” In 400 Jahre Hochschulwesen in Hamburg: Das Akademische Gymnasium (gegr.1613) und seine Bedeutung für die neuzeitliche Wissenschafts- und Bildungsgeschichte. Edited by Johann Anselm Steiger, 139–164. Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 2017.

“The Scholar as Whoremonger: Pieter Burmann (1668-1741) and the Dark Abyss of Classical Scholarship.” In Kriminelle Freidenker Alchemisten: Räume des Untergrunds in der Frühen Neuzeit. Edited by Martin Mulsow, 557–573. Cologne and Weimar: Böhlau, 2014.

“Reimarus, the Cardinal, and the Remaking of Cassius Dio’s Roman History.” In Between Philology and Radical Enlightenment: Hermann Samuel Reimarus, 1694–1768. Edited by Martin Mulsow, 103–157. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

“The Miraculous Crossing of the Red Sea: What Lessing and his Opponents during the Fragmentenstreit did not see.” In Lessings Religionsphilosophie im Kontext: Hamburger Fragmente und Wolfenbütteler Axiomata. Edited by Christoph Bultmann and Friedrich Vollhardt, 181–199. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2011.  

Honors and Awards

Oxford Scholar, College of Arts and Sciences, University of North Alabama (2018).
Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award for Research, University of North Alabama (2015).