HRE 285 - HNR WCH Amish, Brethren, and Mennonites in the U.S. Since 1875

4.00 credits.

(Western Cultural Heritage Core Course - Honors)
*A Guided Writing and Research Course.
An interdisciplinary study of the Amish, Brethren, and Mennonite experience (beliefs, history, practices) in the context of modern American culture. Primary attention focuses on understanding how these communities responded to major modernizing developments in western culture since 1875—the industrial revolution, the modern state, individuation, conscription, the rise of technology, compulsory education, understandings of progress, and religious pluralism. The course will explore how such changes in western cultural heritage have encouraged assimilation, fragmentation, and in some cases reactionary (Old Order) movements within Anabaptist groups. Honors students only.