Research and writing of a book on Luther from 1517 to 1522, the five years during which he transformed from an obscure monk to an outlaw celebrity, to be published in 2017 as part of the commemoration of the Reformation's 500th anniversary.
To help commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, I would use the NEH Public Scholar grant to write a book about Martin Luther between 1517 and 1522--thus from the time that he emerged as an obscure monk until the time that as an outlaw celebrity he came out of hiding and started putting into practice the religious reforms he had been promoting for the past several years. Plenty has of course been written about Luther, who is one of the most famous figures in western history, but I wish especially to focus on Luther the flesh-and-blood monk, rather than the monumental figure who changed the shape of western society. The book, to be written during all of 2016, will be in the form of a narrative intended for general readers, and will be published by Oxford University Press in 2017.