Description
Book SynopsisA detailed look at how Amish women sustained family farming during the Great Depression. At the end of the Great Depression, the US Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE) designated the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the most economically and culturally stable agricultural community in the nation. In Amish Women and the Great Depression, Katherine Jellison and Steven D. Reschly examine the integral role that Amish women played in this Depression-era success story. Making unprecedented use of quantitative data as well as qualitative accounts by and about Amish women, Jellison and Reschly reveal how Amish women sustained family farming during this devastating time. Using information from the federal government's 19351936 Study of Consumer Purchases (SCP), they closely examine the quantitative data related to Old Order Amish families and their neighbors in Lancaster County. SCP investigators approached women in these families to learn about household spending habits,
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. Working Together: Women and Men on the Amish Family Farm
2. Quilts and Clothing: Sewing for the Amish Family
3. Kitchen and Market: Producing Food for the Family and the Customers
4. Field and Barn: Raising Crops and Livestock
5. Friends and Frolics: Having Fun but Saving Money
6. Religion and Rituals: Preparing the Celebrations and Ceremonies
7. Accidents and Illness: Healing the Sick and Spreading the News
8. Insiders and Outsiders: Telling the Story of the Amish Farm Family
Conclusion
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Notes
Index
