Strangers at Home
Amish and Mennonite Women in History
Published on 19. April 2002
Book
Hardback
416 pages
978-0-8018-6786-6 (ISBN)
Description
This collection of original essays focuses on the rich, historically diverse, and often misunderstood experiences of Amish, Mennonite, and other women of Anabaptist traditions across 400 years. Equal parts sociology, religious history, and gender studies, the book explores the changing roles and issues surrounding Anabaptist women in communities ranging from sixteenth-century Europe to contemporary North America.
Gathered under the overarching theme of the insider/outsider distinction, the essays discuss, among other topics: *How womanhood was defined in early Anabaptist societies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how women served as central figures by convening meetings across class boundaries or becoming religious leaders *How nineteenth-century Amish tightened the connections among the individual, the family, the household, and the community by linking them into a shared framework with the father figure at the helm *The changing work world and domestic life of Mennonite women in the three decades following World War II *The recent ascendency of antimodernism and plain dress among the Amish *The special difficulties faced by scholars who try to apply a historical or sociological method to the very same cultural subgroups from which they derive The essays in this collection follow a fascinating journey through time and place to give voice to women who are often characterized as the "quiet in the land." Their voices and their experiences demonstrate the power of religion to shape identity and social practice.
Gathered under the overarching theme of the insider/outsider distinction, the essays discuss, among other topics: *How womanhood was defined in early Anabaptist societies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and how women served as central figures by convening meetings across class boundaries or becoming religious leaders *How nineteenth-century Amish tightened the connections among the individual, the family, the household, and the community by linking them into a shared framework with the father figure at the helm *The changing work world and domestic life of Mennonite women in the three decades following World War II *The recent ascendency of antimodernism and plain dress among the Amish *The special difficulties faced by scholars who try to apply a historical or sociological method to the very same cultural subgroups from which they derive The essays in this collection follow a fascinating journey through time and place to give voice to women who are often characterized as the "quiet in the land." Their voices and their experiences demonstrate the power of religion to shape identity and social practice.
Reviews / Votes
Strangers at Home makes a major contribution to our understanding of Anabaptist history and the ongoing construction of Anabaptist identity. Moreover, in investigating the role of religion and ethnicity in framing the choices available to individuals and communities, the essays in Strangers at Home consider the historical construction of gender in Anabaptist cultures in the larger context of women's history and, in so doing, question assumptions about the field of women's history itself. -- Karen M. Johnson-Weiner Mennonite Quarterly Review Amish and Mennonite women occupy a unique niche in rural America, and the intricate, complex essays in Strangers at Home demonstrates a maturity in their study... The essays are uniformly sophisticated, interesting, and worthwhile. -- Rebecca Sharpless Agricultural History This work is significant both for its breadth... and for offering glimpses into the varieties of Mennonite and Amish life. -- Rachel Waltner Goosen Annals of Iowa A unique and significant contribution not only to the body of scholarship on Anabaptist women, but to the study of women's experiences in ethnoreligious groups in general. -- Erin Roth Der Reggeboge These essays add to the diversification of the historiography of women, raising in fresh ways questions of ethnicity, religion, and individual-community relationships. Their publication is a milestone in Anabaptist scholarship. -- Steven M. Nolt Journal of American History 2003 This collection of essays is an extraordinary contribution to the scholarly study of Anabaptist women. -- Laura H. Weaver Utopian Studies 2002 All who follow the invitation of the young woman features on the dust jacket to explore the experiences of the women who share the predicament finding themselves Strangers at Home, will be greatly enriched. -- Lucille Marr Journal of Mennonite Studies 2003 This collection represents a fresh and much needed approach to Anabaptist studies. -- Esther Epp-Tiessen Conrad Grebel Review 2004More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
43 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder, 2 s/w Zeichnungen
2 Line drawings, black and white; 43 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 34 mm
Weight
748 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-6786-6 (9780801867866)
DOI
10.56021/9780801867866
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Kimberly D. Schmidt | Diane Zimmerman Umble | Steven D. Reschly
Strangers at Home
Amish and Mennonite Women in History
E-Book
07/2003
Johns Hopkins University Press
€37.49
Available for download
Persons
Kimberly D. Schmidt is an assistant professor of history and director of the Washington Community Scholars Center of Eastern Mennonite University. Diane Zimmerman Umble is chair and an associate professor of communications at Millersville University. Steven D. Reschly is an associate professor of history at Truman State University.
Content
Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction: Insiders and Outsiders - Kimberly D. Schmidt, Diane Zimmerman Umble, and Steven D. Reschly Part I: Practice Makes Gender 1 Insights and Blindspots: Writing History from Inside and Outside - Hasia R. Diner 2 Who Are You? The Identity of the Outsider Within - Diane Zimmerman Umble 3 "To Remind Us of Who We Are": Multiple Meanings of Conservative Women's Dress - Beth E. Graybill 4 River Brethren Breadmaking Ritual - Margaret C. Reynolds 5 The Chosen Women: The Amish and the New Deal - Katherine Jellison Part 2: Creating Gendered Communities 6 Meeting around the Distaff : Anabaptist Women in Augsburg - Jeni Hiett Umble 7 "Weak Families" in the Green Hell of Paraguay - Marlene Epp 8 "The Parents Shall Not Go Unpunished": Preservationist Patriarchy and Community - Steven D. Reschly 9 Mennonite Missionary Martha Moser Voth in the Hopi Pueblos, 1893-1910 - Cathy Ann Trotta 10 Schism: Where Women's Outside Work and Insider Dress Collided - Kimberly D. Schmidt Part 3: (Re) creating Gendered Traditions 11 Speaking up and Taking Risks: Anabaptist Family and Household Roles in Sixteenth-Century Tirol - Linda Huebert Hecht 12 Household, Coffee Klatsch, and Office: The Evolving Worlds of Mid-Twentieth-Century Mennonite Women - Royden K. Loewen 13 Voices Within and Voices Without: Quaker Women's Autobiography - Barbara Bolz 14 "We Weren't Always Plain": Poetry by Women of Mennonite Backgrounds - Julia Kasdorf 15 "She May Be Amish Now, but She Won't Be Amish Long": Anabaptist Women and Antimodernism - Jane Marie Pederson Works Cited Contributors Index