Pennsylvania Germans An Interpretive Encyclopedia

This volume assesses Pennsylvania German history, society, and culture on the basis of the “new Pennsylvania German studies.” As an intellectual movement, the new Pennsylvania German studies parallels other transdisciplinary, transnational, and comparative efforts that view issues of identity, expression, and representation of diasporic groups. Typically subaltern or stigmatized, these groups have exerted signifi cant cultural, if not political, influence. As a guide to a major American identity visible materially across the landscape, and viable psychologically and socially as a heritage with attendant values for millions of people, this volume suggests the centrality of Pennsylvania German experiences in the formation of ideas in an American context about the practice of ethnic- linguistic difference