Nelson P. Springer and A. J. Klassen edited these two volumes which list information on writings by Mennonites and about Mennonites from 1631 to 1961. Includes more than 28,000 entries totaling 1,176 pages. Catalogs material published over the centuries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

This book is a history of all branches of Mennonites (including the Amish) from their first arrival in the state of Illinois around 1830 to the present. It deals briefly with Mennonite origins in Europe in the 16th century, points out how the Amish split off from the Mennonites in the 1690s, and depicts Mennonite-Amish migrations to America, especially those who came in the 19th century and settled in Illinois. The work portrays the divisions that developed, mostly after the Civil War, and how the story became more complex. It describes the effect of the AwakeningÓ and the influence of Fundamentalism and other forces on the Illinois Mennonites, including the pressures toward American acculturation. The author points out also the significant trend toward cooperation and unity in recent decades, especially among the (Old) Mennonites and the General Conference Mennonites. Smith is uniquely qualified to write this book. He is a native of Illinois with a thorough knowledge and understanding of the customs and beliefs of Illinois Mennonites. His family was among the early Mennonite settlers in the state, and active in the spiritual life of their community. Smith himself has studied and thought history for many years, has written many historical articles, and is the author or several books. As a professor at Goshen College, he had the support of other Mennonite historians and ready access to library and archival material relating to Illinois Mennonites.

The Wilderness, the Nation, and the Electronic Era: American Christianity and Religious Communication 1620-2000: An Annotated Bibliography contains over 2,400 annotations of books, book chapters, essays, periodical articles, and selected dissertations dealing with the various means and technologies of Christian communication used by clergy, churches, denominations, benevolent associations, printers, booksellers, publishing houses, and individuals and movements in their efforts to disseminate news, knowledge, and information about religious beliefs and life in the United States from colonial times to the present. Providing access to the critical and interpretive literature about religious communication is significant and plays a central role in the recent trend in American historiography toward cultural history, particularly as it relates to numerous collateral disciplines: sociology, anthropology, education, speech, music, literary studies, art history, and technology. The book documents communication shifts, from oral history to print to electronic and visual media, and their adaptive uses in communication networks developed over the nation's history. This reference brings bibliographic control to a large and diverse literature not previously identified or indexed.

Krahn avoids the hero worship which is common among many rehabilitators of Anabaptism. In his presentation the giants of Anabaptism as well as those of the Magisterial Reformation turn out again and again to have clay feet. No attempt is made to rationalize these apparent weaknesses.... Out of Dutch mysticism there grew a spiritualizing tendency...which could not be confined to the question of the Lord's Supper. Frank C. Roberts in 'Calvin Theological Journal' Krahn's greatest service is in the distilling more than a century of Dutch scholarship, and he performs it judiciously.... Especially interesting is his argument that both Reformed Protestantism and Anabaptism had their roots in the Sacramentarian movement of the 1520s. Alastair C. Duke in 'Journal of Ecclesiastical History' [The author's] extensive and accurate knowledge of both the modern and the sixteenth-century Dutch language, together with his careful and competent evaluation of the conflicting interpretations of the events, make his survey of Dutch Anabaptism a reliable source of information. Krahn has made a serious attempt to immerse himself in the issues and to assess fairly the clashing opinions. H.W. Meihuizen in 'Mennonite Quarterly Review'

Balay's "Early Periodical Indexes" is the most comprehensive guide available to the indexing of periodical literature from the 16th century until the end of the 19th century, limited in scope to European languages. The material itself is widely scattered, difficult to find, and until now without a systematic way to identify it. This extraordinarily useful tool lists and describes titles in a wide range of disciplines, including indexes published prior to 1900 that are restricted to periodicals (such as Poole's), those published later (such as Wellesley), as well as serial and topical bibliographies citing publications in all formats--and Balay explains the relationships among them. Electronic databases, both Web-based and CD-ROMs, are included. Indexes are by author, title, topical subjects, and dates of coverage. This landmark resource should be a familiar sight in every research library.