{"product_id":"this-very-ground-this-crooked-affair-9781680270198","title":"This Very Ground, This Crooked Affair","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis Very Ground, This Crooked Affair\u003c\/em\u003e connects the centuries-old history of the author's Pennsylvania Mennonite homestead with that of the land's indigenous Lenape inhabitants, interweaving documented Pennsylvania history with the national pursuit of a Doctrine of Discovery-and the story of Mennonites who had themselves fled suffering and landlessness with the fates of Native Americans continent-wide.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn previous books, such as \u003cem\u003eMaintaining the Right Fellowship: A Narrative Account of Life in the Oldest Mennonite Community in North America\u003c\/em\u003e (1984) and \u003cem\u003eThe Earth is the Lord's: A Narrative History of the Lancaster Conference, \u003c\/em\u003e Ruth minimally acknowledged the Indigenous people replaced by his ancestors. In contrast, in \u003cem\u003eThis Very Ground, This Crooked Affair\u003c\/em\u003e he has continued to tell about William Penn, other colonists connected with Penn, and Mennonite immigrant settlers-but this time has placed the Lenapes of the Delaware Valley at the center rather than the margins of the story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"As Kathleen Norris observes, 'The fact that one people's frontier s usually another's homeland is mostly overlooked.' But why should the lament of the displaced be any less of the story's music than the grateful praise of the displacers?\"\u003cem\u003e -John L. Ruth, in the Preface\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRuth, John L.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Author, historian, and documentarian John L. Ruth, Harleysville, Pennsylvania, is recognized for depicting the lives of Mennonites and their spiritual cousins, the Hutterites and the Amish. With family roots in Switzerland, John Landis Ruth was born in 1930 on a farm 29 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ordained a Mennonite minister at age 20. After earning his PhD at Harvard University and teaching English and American literature at Eastern University and Universität Hamburg, he turned to film documentaries on the Amish and Hutterites which have appeared on PBS and been featured on 60 Minutes. Ruth's narratives of Pennsylvania Mennonite life include Maintaining the Right Fellowship: A Narrative Account of Life in the Oldest Mennonite Community in North America (1984), The Earth is the Lord's: A Narrative History of the Lancaster Conference Mennonites (2001), and Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School (3rd. ed. 2010).","brand":"Cascadia Publishing House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50646133440786,"sku":"9781680270198","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d2b385dc-1f2c-441c-9362-29f84237b90c.jpg?v=1733170450","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/this-very-ground-this-crooked-affair-9781680270198","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}