Education

PhD	1998	University of Notre Dame
MA	1996	University of Notre Dame
MATS	1994	Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
BA	1990	Goshen College

Academic employment

Professor of History, Goshen College, 2007-present.

Faculty director, Goshen College program in Nanchong, P. R. of China, Fall 2008

Chair, History and Political Science Department, 2005-2008, spring 2009.

Assistant and Associate Professor of History, Goshen College, 1999-2007.

Sessional Lecturer, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Spring 2003.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History, University of Notre Dame, 1998-1999.

Fellow, Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, Spring 1997.

Recent courses

American History I
American History II
Colonial and Revolutionary America
Nationalism and War: The United States, 1790-1877
Civil War Era
Recent U.S. History (1945-present)
American Immigration and Ethnic History
Amish and Old Order Groups
History of Mennonites in America
War, Peace, and Nonresistance
History Seminar: Analysis
History Seminar: Synthesis
Christianity in Canada and the United States

Thesis reader

Reader/examiner for Jared S. Burkholder, “Fundamentalism and Freedom: The Story of Congregational Mennonite Church and Calvary Mennonite Church, 1935-1955,” MA thesis, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, April 2000.

Publications

Books

Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War, with James O. Lehman. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. pp. 358.

Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, with Donald B. Kraybill and David L. Weaver-Zercher. Jossey-Bass, 2007. Pp. 237. Japanese edition, Tokyo: Aki Shobo, 2008. Named Christianity Today’s 2008 Book of Merit for Christianity and Culture.

Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities, with Thomas J. Meyers. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. Pp. 244.

An Amish Patchwork: Indiana’s Old Orders in the Modern World, with Thomas J. Meyers. Indiana University Press/Quarry Books, 2005. Pp. 192.

Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits, 2nd ed., with Donald B. Kraybill. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. Pp. 286. First edition, 1995. Named “Outstanding Academic Book” by Choice.

A History of the Amish, Rev. ed. Good Books, 2003. Pp. 380. First edition, 1992.

Foreigners in Their Own Land: Pennsylvania Germans in the Early Republic. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002. Pp. 238. Paperback edition, 2008.

Through Fire and Water: An Overview of Mennonite History, with Harry Loewen. Herald Press, 1996. Pp. 350.

Amish Micro-Enterprises: Models for Rural Development, with Stephen M. Smith, et al. Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences, 1994. Pp. 110.

Book manuscript in process

A Global Mennonite History: North America, manuscript in process; volume five of the Global Mennonite History series.

Book chapters

“‘Mingle Our Religious Concerns with the Affairs of the State’? Nationalism, Reform, and Pennsylvania Germans in the Early Republic,” in Halle Pietism, Colonial North America, and the Young United States, ed. by Hans-Jürgen Grabbe. Franz Steiner Verlag, forthcoming September 2008.

“Inscribing Community: The Budget and Die Botschaft in Amish Life,” in The Amish and the Media, ed. by Diane Zimmerman Umble and David Weaver-Zercher, 181-98.  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.

“‘Avoid Provoking the Spirit of Controversy’: The Irenic Evangelical Legacy of The Biblical Seminary in New York,” in Re-forming the Center: American Protestantism, 1900 to the Present, ed. by Douglas Jacobsen and William V. Trollinger, Jr., 318-40. William B. Eerdmans Publishers, 1998.

“Fifty-year Partners: Mennonite Mutual Aid and the Church,” in Building Communities of Compassion: Mennonite Mutual Aid in Theory and Practice, eds. Willard M. Swartley and Donald B. Kraybill, 213-43. Herald Press, 1998.

“Anabaptist Visions of Church and Society,” in Refocusing a Vision: Shaping Anabaptist Character in the Twenty-first Century, ed. John D. Roth, 11-22. Mennonite Historical Society, 1995.

“Reinterpreting Nonconformity: Mennonite and Brethren Thought and Practice,” in Anabaptist Currents: History in Conversation with the Present, eds. Carl F. Bowman and Stephen L. Longenecker, 183-97. Penobscot Press, 1995.

“The Rise of Microenterprises,” with Donald B. Kraybill, in The Amish Struggle with Modernity, eds. Donald B. Kraybill and Marc A. Olshan, 148-63. University Press of New England, 1994.

Journal articles

“Who Are the Real Amish? Rethinking Diversity and Identity among a Separate People,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 82 (July 2008), 377-94.

“Mennonite Identity and the Writing on the ‘New Giving’ since 1945,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 23 (2005), 59-76.

“From Bishops to Bureaucracy: Observations on the Migration of Authority,” Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology 5 (Fall 2004), 14-24.

“Liberty, Tyranny, and Ethnicity: The German Reformed ‘Free-Synod’ Schism (1819-1823) and the Americanization of an Ethnic Church,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 125 (January/April 2001), 35-60.

“The Amish 'Mission Movement' and the Reformulation of Amish Identity in the Twentieth Century,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 75 (January 2001), 7-36.

“Becoming Ethnic Americans in the Early Republic: Pennsylvania German Reaction to Evangelical Protestant Reformism,” Journal of the Early Republic 20 (Fall 2000), 423-46.

“The Quest for American Kinship: Liberty, Ethnicity, and Ecumenism among Pennsylvania German Lutherans, 1817-1842,” Journal of American Ethnic History 19 (Winter 2000), 64-91.

“A ‘Two-Kingdom’ People in a World of Multiple Identities: Religion, Ethnicity, and American Mennonites,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 73 (July 1999), 485-502.

“Finding a Context for Mennonite History: Pennsylvania German Ethnicity and the (Old) Mennonite Experience,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 21 (October 1998), 2-14.

“Formal Mutual Aid Structures Among American Mennonites and Brethren: Assimilation and Reconstructed Ethnicity,” Journal of American Ethnic History 17 (Spring 1998), 71-86.

“Problems of Collectivity and Modernity: Midcentury Mennonite Conflicts involving Life Insurance and Biblical Hermeneutics,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 72 (April 1998), 207-24.

“Nonagricultural Micro-enterprise Development Among the Pennsylvania Amish: A New Phenomenon,” with Stephen M. Smith, et al., Journal of Rural Studies 13 (July 1997), 237-51.

“An Evangelical Encounter: Mennonites and The Biblical Seminary in New York,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 70 (October 1996), 389-417.

“A Spirit of Exclusivity: The Progress of Religious Conflict in Colonial Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 19 (April 1996), 2-16.

“Christian Farni and Abraham Lincoln: Legal Advice and the Election of 1860,” Illinois Mennonite Heritage Quarterly 23 (March 1996), 1, 13-14.

“The Rise and Fall of an Amish Distillery: Economic Networks and Entrepreneurial Risk on the Illinois Frontier,” Illinois Mennonite Heritage Quarterly 22 (September 1995), 45, 53-63; and (December 1995), 65, 75-79.

“Anabaptist Visions of Church and Society,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 69 (July 1995), 283-94.

“The CPS Frozen Fund: The Beginning of Peace-Time Interaction Between Historic Peace Churches and the United States Government,” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 67 (April 1993), 201-24.

“Church Discipline in the Lancaster Mennonite Conference: The Printed Rules and Discipline, 1881-1968,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 15 (October 1992), 2-16.

“Self-Help Philosophy and Organizational Growth: The Origins and Development of SELFHELP Crafts, 1946-1970,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 14 (October 1991), 14-27.

Representative essays/encyclopedia entries/church presschurch press

“Amish Forgiveness … and the Rest of Us,” Christian Leader, February 2008, 10-13.

“Eighth Street Mennonite Church, 1913-2006,” in Knowing Christ’s Love, Answering God’s Call: Stories of the Central District Conference, ed. by Perry Bush, 20-28.  Goshen, Ind.: Central District Conference, 2006.

Introductory essay on Indiana Amish life, with Thomas J. Meyers, xvii-xxii, in Darryl D. Jones, Amish Life: Living Plainly and Serving God (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).

“Ethnicity and the Faithful Church,” Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 26 (October 2003), 2-9.

“How We Employ the Amish for Our Own Purposes,” Christian Living, January-February 2002, 14-16.

“The Baseball Commissioner and the Mennonites,” Mennonite Historical Bulletin 62 (July 2001), 4-5.

“Peace Churches in North America” and “Hutterian Brethren,” in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4^th ed., v.3. Mohr-Siebeck, 2000.

“Passion for the Prophets: Millard Lind Champions the Old Testament,” Christian Living, October-November 2000, 21-24.

“Hauerwas: Methodist and High Church Mennonite” and “A Few Words with a Mennonite Camp Follower,” Christian Living, March 2000, 4-8.

“Mennonites,” “pacifism,” and “peace movements,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion in American Politics, eds., Jeffrey D. Schultz, John G. West, and Iain Maclean. Oryx Press, 1999.

“Plain People and the Refinement of America,” Mennonite Historical Bulletin 60 (October 1999), 1-11.

“Ethnicity and North American Mennonites,” The Mennonite, 2 (22 June 1999), 4-5.

“Would Eberhard Arnold Join the Bruderhof Today?” Christian Living, March 1999, 4-8.

“Critic and the Community: John Howard Yoder among the Mennonites,” Christian Living, April-May 1998, 4-8.

“Amish Mennonites and the U.S. Supreme Court 110 Years Before Yoder,” Mennonite Historical Bulletin 56 (July 1995), 1-4.

“A Farewell to Farms: The 1934 Missionary Departure,” Mennonite Historical Bulletin 53 (October 1992), 4-6.

“The Mennonite Eclipse,” Festival Quarterly 19 (Summer 1992), 8-12.

Other materials

The Amish of Indiana: Resources for Teaching Third and Fourth Grade Social Studies, with Thomas J. Meyers. Teacher resource notebook published and distributed by the Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen, Indiana, 2003, with support from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

“Building a Community of Faith: A History of Kern Road Mennonite Church, 1960-1998,” eighty-five-page manuscript available from the author or the church office.

Book reviews

Twenty-five reviews in the journals American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Journal of American Ethnic History, Church History, Journal of Mennonite Studies, Brethren in Christ History and Life, Social History, Agricultural History, Conrad Grebel Review, Michigan Historical Review, Mennonite Life, and Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage.

Eight reviews in the periodicals Christian Century, The Mennonite, and Festival Quarterly.

Selected conference papers and invited lectures

“Globalizing a Separate People: World Christianity and North American Mennonites,” American Historical Association/American Society of Church History Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., January 2008.

“Who Are the Real Amish? New Identities, Growing Diversity,” plenary conference address, The Amish in America: An Interdisciplinary Conference, Elizabethtown College, June 2007.

“Amish Diversity” and “Amish Schools,” 11th European Patchwork Lectures, September 2005, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France.

“Money Matters: Giving,” State of the Art of North American Mennonite History, Chair in Mennonite Studies annual conference, University of Winnipeg, October 2004.

“Ethnicity: Help Or Hindrance?” Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society Quarterly Lecture, June 2003.

“The Amish in Northern Indiana: Continuity and Change,” Spring 2003 Schurz Library Lecture, Indiana University-South Bend, April 2003.

“Reforming America and Refining Ethnicity: Pennsylvania German Responses in the Early Republic,” The Impact of Halle Pietism on Colonial North America and the Young United States: An International Symposium, Leucorea Foundation, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, October 2002.

“Amish Community and Change,” Taylor University-Upland, March 2002.

“The Changing Amish Economy: Developments and Implications,” Serving Amish and Anabaptist Communities: A Conference for Professionals, Walnut Creek, Ohio, March 2001.

“Diversity Among the Indiana Amish,” Indiana Folklore Institute, Indiana University-Bloomington, and “Occupational Change among the Amish,” Collins Living-Learning Center, Indiana University-Bloomington, February 2001.

With Tom Meyers, “Diversity Among the Plain People: Indiana’s Twenty-two Old Order Communities,” Mennonite Historical Society meeting, April 2000.

“The Plain People of Michiana: Commonalities and Differences,” Michiana Anabaptist Historians Fall Meeting, October 1999.

“Rites of Passage and Life’s Milestones in the Amish Community,” Youngstown State University, February 1999.

“‘Mingle Our Religious Concerns with the affairs of the State’?: Early Nineteenth-century Pennsylvania Germans and the Public Role of Religion,” American Historical Association Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., January 1999.

“Finding a Context for Mennonite History: Pennsylvania German Ethnicity and the (Old) Mennonite Experience,” One People, Many Voices: Charting the Next Generation of Mennonite Historical Writing in the U.S. and Canada, Abbotsford, B.C., May 1998.

“Mennonites and Biblical Interpretation in the Twentieth Century,” Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, Lancaster, Pa., May 1997.

“A ‘Two-Kingdom’ People in a World of Multiple Responsibilities and Identities: Religion and Ethnicity among American Mennonites,” Colloquium on Mennonites and Jews: Religious Minorities and the Search for Identity in America, Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies/University of Maryland-College Park, April 1997.

“The Amish in America,” Youngstown State University, January 1997.

“Re-thinking a ‘Supply-side’ Interpretation: Religion and Ethnicity in the American Early Republic,” American Historical Association/American Society of Church History Annual Convention, New York City, January 1997.

“Education and the Public Catholic Life: Sadoleto’s Argument for Discipline, Virtue, and the Restoration of the Image of God,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis, October 1996.

“Formal Mutual Aid Structures as a Measure of Ethnicity and Assimilation,” Church-Related Institutions: A Multidisciplinary Conference, Elizabethtown College, June 1996.

“The Ambiguity of Collectivity and the Limits of Modernity,” Lilly Endowment Colloquium on Church and Conflict, Goshen College, June 1996.

“Amish Enterprise,” Minorities in the Marketplace Series, Millikin University, October 1995.

“Farnisville as Frontier: An Antebellum Amish Mennonite Community as Metropolitan Hinterland,” Great Lakes History Conference, Grand Valley State University, October 1995.

“Anabaptist Visions of Church and Society,” Whither the Anabaptist Vision?: New Directions for a New Century, Elizabethtown College, June 1994.

“Historical Interpretations of Nonconformity,” Bridgewater Forum for Religious Studies, Bridgewater College, October 1993.

“The Nature and Structure of Amish Enterprises,” Amish Society, 1693-1993: Three Hundred Years of Persistence and Change, Elizabethtown College, July 1993.

Related experience

• Book Review Editor, Mennonite Quarterly Review, 2003-present.
• Series Editor, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 2000-2008.
• Board of Editors, Mennonite Quarterly Review, 2000-present.
• Board of Editors, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, 2007-2010.
• Advisory Board, Journal of Mennonite Studies, 2007-present.
• Contributing Editor, Mennonite Life, 2000-present.
• Board of Editors, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History, 1999-2000.
• Editor for Community, Christian Living, 1998-2002; Editor-at-large, Christian Living, 1994-1996.
• Board of Directors, Mennonite Historical Society, 1989-1991; 1993-1996.
• Editorial Council, Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, 1992-1994.
• Vice President, Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite Historical Society, 1992-1993.
• Contributing Editor, Mennonite Historical Bulletin, 1991-2003.
• Peer reviewer of one or more book manuscripts for The Johns Hopkins University Press, New York University Press, Indiana University Press, and Penn State University Press/Pennsylvania German Society.  Peer reviewer of one or more manuscripts for Journal of American History, Journal of American Ethnic History, Pennsylvania History, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Journal of Mennonite Studies, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, and Mennonite Quarterly Review.  Peer reviewer for the National Science Foundation [proposal involving Old Order human subjects].

Awards/Grants

• Christianity Today’s 2008 Book of Merit (Christianity and Culture) for Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy.
• Fetzer Institute Grant, 2006-2007, Forgiveness and Amish society, Co-PI with David Weaver-Zercher and Donald B. Kraybill. 
• National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Reserach Award, “Amish Diversity and Identity: Transformations in the Twentieth Century,” 2005-2008, Co-PI with Donald B. Kraybill, Elizabethtown College, and Karen Johnson-Weiner, SUNY-Potsdam.
• Kauffman Foundation grant, “Amish Entrepreneurship,” 2006-2008, Co-PI with with Donald B. Kraybill and Karen Johnson-Weiner.
• Goshen College Minninger Center Grant, 2006, 2005, 2004.
• Plowshares Faculty Grant, 2005.
• Goshen College Faculty Reserach Grant, 2003, 2001.
• Goshen College Multicultural Education Office Course Enrichment Grant, 2002.
• John Highbarger Memorial Dissertation Award, Department of History, University of Notre Dame, 1999.
• Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Award in the Humanities, University of Notre Dame, 1999.
• University of Notre Dame Zahm Research Grant, spring 1998.
• Choice “Outstanding Academic Book,” for Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits. (Awarded in 1997 for books reviewed in 1996).
• Connelly Foundation Fellow, Galen and Jesse Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, Elizabethtown College, spring 1997.
• Institute of Mennonite Studies/Mennonite Mutual Aid summer research grant, 1995.
• University Presidential Fellowship, University of Notre Dame, 1994-1998.
• History, Theology, & Ethics Department Award, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 1994.

Memberships

American Society of Church History
Conference on Faith and History
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Organization of American Historians
Pennsylvania Historical Association
Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
Elkhart County (Ind.) Historical Society
Mennonite Historical Society
Michiana Anabaptist Historians
Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society

Personal

Born: 1968, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Married: Rachel S. Miller, Engadine, Michigan.
Daughters: Lydia and Esther.
Home address: 905 Leroy Street, Goshen, Indiana 46526.

Eighth Street Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana

 

Updated May 2008