Young Center Book Series
Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies are published by Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP) in Baltimore, Maryland. The oldest university press in the nation, it was founded in 1878 and is one of the world’s largest and most respected university presses.
Dancing on the Devil's Playground, by James A. Cates, board-certified clinical psychologist and licensed addiction counselor in northeast Indiana, was published in July 2024. The book uses Donald Kraybill’s model of negotiation with modernity to analyze how the Amish evaluate options and make decisions that are adaptive yet in line with their beliefs and tradition..
Amish Women and the Great Depression, by Professors Katherine Jellison and Steven D. Reschly, was published in November 2023. Using quantitative data from the federal government’s 1935–1936 Study of Consumer Purchases and qualitative accounts by and about Amish women, the authors describe how Amish women in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, sustained family farming during the Great Depression.
Fooling with the Amish: Amish Mafia, Entertaining Fakery, and the Evolution of Reality TV, by Dirk Eitzen, professor of film and media at Franklin & Marshall College, was published in September 2022. The book examines deception in reality TV and audience responses to it, using Amish Mafia as an example. What is it about the so-called reality of these shows that appeals to viewers, and how and why are people taken in by falsehoods in the media? Eitzen's answer is that, in taking liberties with facts, Amish Mafia and other reality TV shows--as well as fake news--works very much like gossip.
Released in October 2021, Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability, by Royden Loewen, senior scholar at the University of Winnipeg, is a multiyear study of seven geographically distinctive Anabaptist communities located in seven countries--Bolivia, Canada, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Russia, the United States, and Zimbabwe--on five continents. Although they share a common Anabaptist faith, the farmers reside in places and climates that are quite distinctive from one another, and they each deal with the environmental changes and the global forces of modernization in different ways.
The Lives of Amish Women, by Karen Johnson-Weiner, distinguished service professor emerita of anthropology at SUNY Potsdam, was published in September 2020. Building on thirty-five years of fieldwork in Amish communities, Johnson-Weiner explores the religiously defined roles of Amish women and how these roles have changed over time. The book deals honestly with the costs and benefits of being an Amish woman in a modern world and challenges the stereotypes and myths about Amish women that have shaped how they are viewed by mainstream society.
Published in 2018, Nature and the Environment in Amish Life, by David L. McConnell, professor of anthropology at the College of Wooster, and Marilyn D. Loveless, emeritus professor of biology at the College of Wooster, is a comprehensive study of Amish understandings of the natural world. Drawing on 150 interviews conducted over the course of 7 years, as well as a survey of household resource use among Amish and non-Amish people, the authors explore how the Amish understand nature in their daily lives and how their actions impact the natural world.
Pennsylvania Germans: An Interpretive Encyclopedia, edited by Simon J. Bronner, distinguished professor of American studies and folklore and the director of the Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies at Penn State, Harrisburg, and Joshua R. Brown, associate professor of German at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, was published in 2017. The book contains nineteen essays describing the history and culture of Pennsylvania Germans, including "Language Use among Anabaptist Groups" by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and Edsel Burdge.
In 2016, three books were published in the Young Center series: Pennsylvania Dutch: The Story of An American Language by Mark Louden, professor of German at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; Martyrs Mirror: A Social History by David Weaver-Zercher, professor of American religious history at Messiah College; and The Amish: A Concise Introduction by Steven Nolt, senior scholar at the Young Center and former professor of history at Goshen College.
In 2014, five books were published in the Young Center series: California Mennonites by Brian Froese, assistant professor of history at Canadian Mennonite University; Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture by history professor Felipe Hinojosa of Texas A&M University; Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years , the second edition of Rich Stevick's book on Amish youth; Why the Amish Sing: Songs of Solidarity and Identity by ethnomusicologist D. Rose Elder; and Serving the Amish: A Cultural Guide for Professionals by clinical psychologist James Cates.
Four titles were released in 2013: Thrill of the Chaste: The Allure of Amish Romance Novels by writer and editor Valerie Weaver-Zercher; An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe by Douglas H. Shantz, professor of Christian thought at the University of Calgary; Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon by history professor Janneken Smucker of West Chester University; and Pacifists in Chains: The Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War by Duane C. S. Stoltzfus, professor of communication at Goshen College.
One title was released in 2012: Selling the Amish: The Tourism of Nostalgia by Susan L. Trollinger, English professor at the University of Dayton. Three titles were released in 2010: Daily Demonstrators: The Civil Rights Movement in Mennonite Homes and Sanctuaries by history professor Tobin Miller Shearer of the University of Montana, The Hutterites in North America by Fresno Pacific University professor Rod Janzen and Brigham Young University professor Max Stanton and An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community by Charles E. Hurst and David L. McConnell of The College of Wooster.
The series began in 2007 with the publication of Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, a comprehensive study of Old Order Mennonite and Amish schools in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania by Karen Johnson-Weiner, professor of anthropology at SUNY Potsdam. Three more books were also published in 2007: Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years by Messiah College professor emeritus Richard Stevick; Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities by Goshen College professors Steven Nolt and Thomas Meyers; and Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War by James O. Lehman and Steven Nolt. The fifth book in the series, The Amish and the Media, edited by Diane Zimmerman Umble, professor of communication at Millersville University, and David L. Weaver-Zercher, associate professor of American religious history at Messiah College, was published in 2008. The sixth, Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia by Peter J. Klassen, professor emeritus at California State University, Fresno, was published in 2009.
Book Acquisition and Development
Series editor Steven M. Nolt guides the acquisition and development process for new manuscripts. For a description of the scope of the Young Center Books series, see the overview.
For a description of the acquisition process, see the acquisition document.