The early Pa. Dutch settlers introduced to America a native craftsmanship strongly influenced by their ancestral fatherland. It developed a flavor of its own which has contributed so richly to the historical folk art of the New World. Brings together a representative collection of illustrative material (over 270 photos) as an excellent record of the Pa. Dutch folk art. (144pp. illus. Masthof Press, 1993 reprint of 1946 ed.)

Wentz inrtoduces readers to this distinctive American people and their curious customs and provides insight into their spirituality and the workings of their unique and rapidly vanishing culture. A fascinating and noteworthy book that brings an exploration of folk religion and culture to a wide American readership.

One of the ways in which the Mennonites, Moravians and other German farmfolk expressed their joy of living in southeastern Pennsylvania was in the adornment of documents (Fraktur and Vorschrift), samplers, house blessings, Valentines, furniture, needlework, walls and other craft examples with floral borders, hearts, tulips, doves and other motifs in vivid abundance. The designs reproduced faithfully here are not the commercial hex signs seen at roadside stands but the authentic art of the Pennsylvania German culture.

For almost three centuries, the "Pennsylvania Dutch"--descended from German immigrants--have practiced white magic, known in their dialect as Braucherei (from the German "brauchen," to use) or Powwowing. The tradition was brought by immigrants from the Rhineland and Switzerland in the 17th and 18th centuries, when they settled in Pennsylvania and in other areas of what is now the eastern United States and Canada. Practitioners draw on folklore and tradition dating to the turn of the 19th century, when healers like Mountain Mary--canonized as a saint for her powers--arrived in the New World. The author, a member of the Pennsylvania Dutch community, describes in detail the practices, culture and history of faith healers and witches.

Sheds light on the process of cultural change that occurred over the course of a century or more in the majority of Pennsylvania German communities and churches. The Pennsylvania Dutch comprised the largest single ethnic group in the early American Republic of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Yet like other ethnic minorities in early America, they struggled to maintain their own distinct ethnic identity in everything that they did. Eventually their German Lutheran and Reformed customs and folkways gave way to Anglo-American pressure. The tune and chorale books printed for use in Pennsylvania Dutch churches document this gradual process of Americanization, including notable moments of resistance to change. Daniel Grimminger's Sacred Song and the Pennsylvania Dutch is the only in-depth study of the shifting identity of the Pennsylvania Dutch as manifested in their music. Through a closer examination of music sources, folk art, and historical contexts, this interdisciplinary study sheds light on the process of cultural change that occurred over the course of a century or more in the majority of Pennsylvania German communities and churches. Grimminger's book also provides a model with which to view all ethnic enclaves, in America and elsewhere, andthe ways in which loyalties can shift as a group becomes part of a larger cultural fabric. Daniel Grimminger holds a doctorate in sacred music and choral conducting, as well as a PhD in musicology. He also holds a masterof theological studies degree and is a clergyman in the North American Lutheran Church. Grimminger teaches at Kent State University and is the pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio.