Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies: Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia (Hardcover)

This comprehensive encyclopedia--the first of its kind--maps out three hundred years of German history and culture in Pennsylvania and beyond. Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRL Destined to become the standard reference on Pennsylvania Germans (also known as the Pennsylvania Dutch ) this book is the first survey of this extensive American group in nearly seventy-five years. Nineteen broad interpretive essays written by a distinguished group of historians anthropologists sociologists linguists and folklorists tell the rich and nuanced story of Pennsylvania German history and culture. United by a distinct (and distinctly American) language the Pennsylvania Germans have been slower to assimilate than other ethnic groups. This sweeping volume reveals though that the group is much less homogenous and isolated than was previously thought. From architecture media and farming techniques to food folklore and medicine the Pennsylvania Germans and their descendants display a wide range of cultural variation. In Pennsylvania Germans editors Simon J. Bronner and Joshua R. Brown broaden the geographical and social coverage of the group touching both on Pennsylvanian communities and the Pennsylvania German diaspora including settlements in Canada and Mexico. They also expand historical coverage of the Pennsylvania Germans to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Beautifully illustrated this volume--while paying tribute to the historical and cultural legacy of the Pennsylvania Germans--is the most comprehensive book on the subject to date. Contributors: R. Troy Boyer Simon J. Bronner Joshua R. Brown Edsel Burdge Jr. William W. Donner John B. Frantz Mark Häberlein Karen M. Johnson-Weiner Donald B. Kraybill David W. Kriebel Gabrielle Lanier Mark L. Louden Yvonne J. Milspaw Lisa Minardi Steven M. Nolt Candace Perry Sheila Rohrer and Diane Wenger