Since its original release in 1939, Carl Schneider's The German Church on the American Frontier has been the premier published resource on the unique Evangelischer Kirchenverein des Westens (Evangelical Church Society of the West), 1840-66, which later assumed a wider denominational identity as the German Evangelical Synod of North America, the church of the Niebuhr family. Known eventually as the Evangelical Synod of North America, the group's ecumenical and irenic heritage contributed to mergers that resulted in the Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1934-1957, and thereafter in the United Church of Christ. Schneider's book, however, does more than focus on the early history of a specific denomination. Instead, it presents the development of a particular religious group as a case study for the broader experience of German Protestants on the American frontier. As such, The German Church on the American Frontier affords a cross-section view of how the social, economic, political, cultural, and religious dimensions of the mid-nineteenth century were experienced by German Protestants. Seventy years after it was first published, the book continues to be a significant contribution to the history of the American frontier. --Allen W. Mueller Director of the Library/Professor of Theological Bibliography Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis
