Author's Preface: In 1938, the 4000 Mennonites in Iowa were living in eight communities where they maintained small islands of distinctive culture in a sea of standardized American civilization. Five wings of the Mennonite Church were represented, differing from each other in the extent to which they enforced separation from the practices of the world about them. The General Conference Mennonites, most liberal of these five groups, have lost many of the traditions which had made their grandfathers a separate people, while the Old Order Amish Mennonites, on the other hand, have preserved intact most of the culture they had inherited from their forefathers. How they have maintained their standards of simple dress and plain living and their belief in the power of love and good will in a world where these ideals have had few advocates, one can understand only by studying their four hundred years of history. Resource can be used with the following standards to further develop lessons: 3rd grade SS 3.27 Immigration and Migration and 3rd grade SS 3.28 Cultural Contributions.
