Upcoming Annual Volumes

  • 2025 John Philip Boehm by Dr. Kevin David Sterner

  • 2024 The German Lutheran World of Kate Hummel by Janet Fishburn

  • 2023 Veracular Furniture of The Mahantongo Valley by Bro. Johannes Zinzen-Dorf

  • 2022 Die Gluft by John Zug

  • 2021 To These Parents Vol. 2, - South Central PA by Dr. Jon Acker

  • 2020 To These Parents Vol. 1, by Dr. Jon Acker

  • 2019 The PA Dutch Experience 1681-1783 by James Fritz

  • 2018 The History of the G.S. Peters Co. of PA Vol. I, by Rev. Edward Rosenberry

  • 2017 Die Pennsylvaanish Dietche by Earl Vol 2, HAGG

  • 2016 Schreisheim to Pennylvania Pioneers by John Philip Diefenderfor

  • 2015 Oley Valley the Federal Years 1776-1862, in the Golden Age of America's Agrarian Republic (1776-1862), by Richard Orth & Richard Shaner - SOLD OUT

  • 2014 Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Spirituality, by Dr. Richard Wentz

  • 2013 Annual Volume Mountain Mary and Other Tales of the Pennsylvania Dutch by Dr. Richard Wentz - SOLD OUT

  • 2012 The Heart of the Taufschein: The Pivotal Role of Berks County, Pennsylvania by Corinne and Russell Earnest

 

Past Annual Volumes

2011 Annual Volume - SOLD OUT

Paint, Pattern, and People: Furniture of Southeastern Pennsylvania 1725-1850

By Wendy Cooper and Lisa Minardi


2010 Annual Volume - SOLD OUT
Die Pennsylvaanisch Dietsche

By Earl Haag


2009 Annual Volume - SOLD OUT
Heart Language: Elsie Singmaster and Her Pennsylvania German Writings


By Susan Hill


2008 Annual Volume - Release July 2008Architecture and Artifacts of the Pennsylvania Germans Constructing Identity in Early America

By Cynthia G. Falk 256 pages | 103 illustrations | 8.5 x 9 | July 2008 ISBN 978-0-271-03338-9 | cloth: $45.00

2007 Annual Volume - SOLD OUT
Powwowing among the Pennsylvania Dutch: A Traditional Medical Practice in the Modern World

By David W Kriebel

 


2006 Annual Volume
Vol. XL   Horse & Buggy Mennonites.
By Donald B. Kraybill and James P. Hurd


 

2005 Annual Volume

The Pennsylvania German Broadside - A History Guide by Don Yoder ; Co-Published with the Library Company of Philadelphia and The Pennsylvania German Society

Fifteenth-century Germany was the birthplace of movable type and of one of its powerful consequences, the broadside.  Don Yoder's Pennsylvania German Broadside examines the history and legacy of these printed sheets within the Pennsylvania German Community.  The author defines a broadside as any piece of paper printed on one side that is intended to be given away or sold. 


2004 Annual Volume

Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler

Edited by David Weaver-Zercher

    “John Hostetler’s quiet influence has reached every aspect of Amish studies.  He knows more about the Amish than anyone else, for he combines the experience of being raised Amish, of having Amish siblings, with academic studies on most aspects of Amish culture. . . .  But his contributions have gone much farther than academia.  By influencing the dominant culture, he has contributed to the growth and survival of the culture he chose to leave.”—Gertrude E. Huntington 

   From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, John A. Hostetler was the world's premier scholar of Amish life. Hailed by his peers for his illuminating and sensitive portrayals of this oft-misunderstood religious sect, Hostetler successfully spanned the divide between popular and academic culture, thereby shaping perceptions of the Amish throughout American society. He was also outspoken in his views of the modern world and of the Amish world-views that continue to stir debate today.

   Born into an Old Order Amish family in 1918, Hostetler came of age in an era when the Amish were largely dismissed as a quaint and declining culture, a curious survival with little relevance for contemporary American life. That perception changed during Hostetler's career, for not only did the Amish survive during these decades, they demonstrated a stunning degree of cultural vitality, which Hostetler observed, analyzed, and interpreted for millions of interested readers. 

   Writing the Amish both recounts and assesses Hostetler's Amish-related work. The first half of the book consists of four reflective essays—by Donald Kraybill, Simon Bronner, David Weaver-Zercher, and Hostetler himself—in which Hostetler is the primary subject. The second half reprints in chronological order fourteen key writings by Hostetler with commentaries and annotations by Weaver-Zercher. 

   Taken together, these writings, supplemented by a comprehensive bibliography of Hostetler's publications, provide ready access to the Hostetler corpus and the tools by which to evaluate his work, his intellectual evolution, and his legacy as a scholar of Amish and American life. Moreover, by providing a window into the varied worlds of John A. Hostetler—his Amish boyhood, his Mennonite Church milieu, his educational pursuits, his scholarly career, and his vocation as a mediator and advocate for Amish life—this volume enhances the ongoing discussion of how ethnographic representation pertains to America's most renowned folk culture, the Old Order Amish. 

   David L. Weaver-Zercher is Associate Professor of American Religious History at Messiah College. He is the author of The Amish in the American Imagination, reviewed in Volume 36, Number 2 of Der Reggeboge:  Journal of The Pennsylvania German Society

   Published with Penn State University Press in the Pennsylvania German History and Culture Series. 


Congratulations to Our Award-Winning Authors

The Pennsylvania German Society is proud to announce that two of its recent publications have received major publishing awards.

Jeff Bach's Voices of the Turtledoves: The Sacred World of Ephrata, the Society's 2002 Annual Membership Volume, has been awarded The 2004 Dale W. Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College. Voices of the Turtledoves was selected from more than a dozen books nominated for the first-ever Brown Award, including honorable mention titles The Earth Is the Lord's by Society member John L. Ruth and The Amish in the American Imagination by Society contributor David Weaver-Zercher, both of which have been reviewed in Der Reggeboge: Journal of The Pennsylvania German Society.

Reviewers of Voices of the Turtledoves have praised the book's high level of scholarship and Bach's ability to penetrate and analyze the difficult and diverse sources of Ephrata's religious life and thought: "Jeff Bach's work on the Ephrata Cloister presents a masterful study of the various ideologies that influenced Conrad Beissel's mystical beliefs, from astrology, Rosicrucianism and magic, to Anabaptism and Pietism." Another reviewer remarks that "Bach's clear writing style, skillful use of sources and excellent bibliographic essay makes this book the most significant English language publication on the Ephrata tradition and a key text in the growing scholarship on radical Pietism. It will be a landmark study for years to come."

We thank Jeff Bach for his outstanding contribution to the PGS Annual Volume series and the Young Center for recognizing his achievement.

The Pennsylvania German Society's other award winner is Nancy Kettering Frye, who earned the Award of Commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute for her article, "Trusting in Providence: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the Year 1776," which appeared in Volume 36, Number 2 (2002) of Der Reggeboge. Her work was honored at the 29th annual awards banquet on the Concordia Seminary campus in St. Louis. Each year, the institute recognizes people, congregations, agencies, or boards for historical publications or audiovisual media for their contributions to Lutheran literature, or for personal service in the field of Lutheran archival and historical work. Frye's article, a story of Muhlenberg's actions in trying times, is described as a significant contribution to preserving Lutheran history in America.

We congratulate both our award-winning authors. Please see the Publications page of our website for information on how to order these two outstanding Pennsylvania German Society publications.