Back to Results
Cover image of The Hutterites in North America
Cover image of The Hutterites in North America
Share this Title:

The Hutterites in North America

Rod Janzen and Max Stanton

Publication Date
Binding Type

One of the longest-lived communal societies in North America, the Hutterites have developed multifaceted communitarian perspectives on everything from conflict resolution and decision-making practices to standards of living and care for the elderly. This compellingly written book offers a glimpse into the complex and varied lives of the nearly 500 North American Hutterite communities.

North American Hutterites today number around 50,000 and have common roots with and beliefs akin to the Amish and other Old Order Christians. This historical analysis and anthropological investigation draws on...

One of the longest-lived communal societies in North America, the Hutterites have developed multifaceted communitarian perspectives on everything from conflict resolution and decision-making practices to standards of living and care for the elderly. This compellingly written book offers a glimpse into the complex and varied lives of the nearly 500 North American Hutterite communities.

North American Hutterites today number around 50,000 and have common roots with and beliefs akin to the Amish and other Old Order Christians. This historical analysis and anthropological investigation draws on existing research, primary sources, and over 25 years of the authors' interaction with Hutterite communities to recount the group's physical and spiritual journey from its 16th-century founding in Eastern Europe and its near disappearance in Transylvania in the 1760s to its late 19th-century transplantation to North America and into the modern era. It explains how the Hutterites found creative ways to manage social and economic changes over more than five centuries while holding to the principles and cultural values embedded in their faith.

Religious scholars, anthropologists, and historians of America and the Anabaptist faiths will find this objective-yet-appreciative account of the Hutterites' distinct North American culture to be a valuable and fascinating study both of the religion and of a viable alternative to modern-day capitalism.

Reviews

Reviews

A comprehensive and appealing description of Hutterites that should become a definitive work and read by those looking for an interesting book in the field of American religion.

An excellent resource for understanding the contemporary culture of an Anabaptist congregation few North Americans know.

This book is an essential synthesis of Hutterite history and culture.

The book provides a very readable brief description of just about every aspect of Hutterite life.

A balanced and personalized account.

See All Reviews
About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
400
ISBN
9780801894893
Illustration Description
39 halftones, 4 maps, 2 graphs
Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables, and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Communal Christians in North America
2. Origins and History
3. Immigration and Settlement in North America
4. Four Hutterite Branches
5. Beliefs

List of Figures, Tables, and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Communal Christians in North America
2. Origins and History
3. Immigration and Settlement in North America
4. Four Hutterite Branches
5. Beliefs and Practices
6. Life Patterns and Rites of Passage
7. Identity, Tradition, and Folk Beliefs
8. Education and Cultural Continuity
9. Colony Structure, Governance, and Economics
10. Population, Demography, and Defection
11. Managing Technology and Social Change
12. Relationships with Non-Hutterites
13. Facing the Future
Appendix: Hutterite Colonies in North America, 2009
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Rod Janzen

Rod Janzen is Distinguished Scholar and Professor of History at Fresno Pacific University. He is the author of The Hutterites in North America (also published by Johns Hopkins) and The Prairie People: Forgotten Anabaptists (University Press of New England).
Featured Contributor

Max Stanton

Max Stanton is a professor of anthropology and geography at Brigham Young University, Hawaii. He has been writing about Hutterites since 1988.