Hutterite Society

John A. Hostetler (1918-2001) is author of the best-selling Amish Society and the widely acclaimed Hutterite Society, both available from Johns Hopkins. Raised in the Amish faith, he was founding director of the Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and a former professor of anthropology and sociology at Temple University.

A must reading for anyone doing serious study of the Hutterites... An excellent history of the Hutterites... [which] will serve for many years to come as a good benchmark for an analysis of change in the way of life of this extraordinary group. Mennonite Life A fine study of the oldest Western communal society, originally Moravian, who live now on the American and Canadian plains. New York Times Book Review An impressive picture of a people who share the general Anabaptist rejection of worldly thrills and pleasures, but who have a special distinction of their own-a strict devotion to communal living that has endured with little change for more than four centuries. Time Hutterite Society, an even more impressive work than Hostetler's earlier Amish Society, is surely destined to become a minor classic widely read and acclaimed by scholars and the general public. Sociology Essential to any study of Hutterites. American Historical Review

• Preface to the Paperback EditionPrefaceIntroductionPart I: Historical DevelopmentChapter 1. The Birth of Hutterite Society Chapter 2. The Golden Period in MoraviaChapter 3. The Decline and Fate of The Eastern European Communities Chapter 4. Life in RussiaChapter 5. Adaptation to the North American EnvironmentPart II: Contemporary Social and Cultural OrganizationChapter 6. World View and LanguageChapter 7. Colony OrganizationChapter 8. Subsistence and Economic PatternsChapter 9. Schooling and Preparation for LifeChapter 10. Adult Life PatternsPart III: The Problems and Techniques of SurvivalChapter 11. The Social Problems of Communal LivingChapter 12. The Strategy of Hutterite SurvivalAppendixesSelected BibliographyIndex