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Donald B. Kraybill is a prolific author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and living. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups, and is the foremost expert on the Old Order Amish.

Since 2003. Kraybill has been currently Distinguished College Professor and Senior Fellow in the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. He previously served as chairman of the Sociology and Social Work Department at E-town from 1979 to 1985 and as director of the Young Center from 1989 to 1996. Elizabethtown College, founded in 1899 by the Church of the Brethern, is a liberal-arts college with 43 major programs of study, and more than 60 minors.[1]

Current projects

In October 2005, Young Center was awarded a $100,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a three-year collaborative research project entitled "Amish Diversity and Identity: Transformations in 20th Century America." In addition to Kraybill as senior investigator, the investigative team also includes Steven Nolt, professor of history at Goshen College in Indiana, and Karen Johnson-Weiner, professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Potsdam. A national panel of seven scholars will advise the research team throughout the project.

File:DonaldKraybill.jpg

Press release photo, 2002

The NEH grant will enable the researchers to investigate the Amish experience at the national level, giving attention to geographic expansion, the growth of diversity, changing conceptions of identity and evolving patterns of interaction with the larger society. The team will also explore how the Amish have contributed to shaping the identity of a nation that made exceptions in the areas of education, Social Security and child labor for a religious minority living on its cultural margins.

Educator and author

Kraybill served as provost and professor of Sociology and Anabaptist studies at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania. Messiah College was founded in 1899 as Messiah Bible College by the Brethern In Christ but has been independent since 1972, and now spans a range of academic study from arts and humanities to engineering and business.[2]. It's one of the top five “Best Colleges” on the baccalaureate level in the North, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Kraybill is the author or editor of more than 18 books and dozens of professional articles. His books have been translated into six different languages and his research on Anabaptist groups has been featured in magazines, newspapers, and on radio and television programs across the United States and in many foreign countries.

As one might expect, Kraybill writes almost exclusively on the Anabaptists faiths. As one might not expect, Kraybill writes not just academic books - largely published by Johns Hopkins University Press- but popular books sold in gift shops to tourists, interested in learning more about the plain sects. He is one of two experts - the other being Dr. D. Holmes Morton - frequently quoted by reporters to give background to news stories involving the Amish.

Degrees

1976 Ph.D., Temple University
1971 M.A., Temple University
1967 B.A., Eastern Mennonite University

Bibliography

Our Star-Spangled Faith, 1976. ISBN 0836117972
Puzzles of Amish Life, 1990. ISBN 1561480010
Old Order Amish: Their Enduring Way of Life (with Lucian Niemeyer), 1993. ISBN 0801844266
The Amish Struggle With Modernity (Co-edited with Marc Alan Olshan), 1994. ISBN 0874516846
The Riddles of Human Society (with Conrad L. Kanagy, 1999. ISBN 076198562X
The Riddle of Amish Culture, 2001. ISBN 080186772X
Anabaptist World USA (with C. Nelson Hostetter), 2001. ISBN 0836191633
On the Backroad to Heaven: Old Order Hutterites, Mennonites, Amish, and Brethren (co-author: Carl Desportes Bowman), 2001. ISBN 0801865654
The Upside-Down Kingdom, 2003. ISBN 0836192362
The Amish: Why They Enchant Us, 2003. ISBN 0836192419
Who Are the Anabaptists: Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites, 2003. ISBN 0836192427
The Amish and the State, 2003. ISBN 0801872367
Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits (with Steven M. Nolt), 2004. ISBN 0801878055

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 As one might expect, Kraybill writes almost exclusively on the Anabaptists faiths. As one might not expect, Kraybill writes not just academic books - largely published by [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins University Press]]- but popular books sold in gift shops to tourists, interested in learning more about the plain sects. He is one of two experts - the other being [[Clinic for Special Children|Dr. D. Holmes Morton]] - frequently quoted by reporters to give background to news stories involving the Amish.
-==Is Kraybill biased?==
-Philip Howard, of Ocracoke Island, NC writes in his blog of Kraybill's admiration for the plain sects.[http://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/2005_06_05_villagecraftsmen_archive.html]
-:Imagine my surprise to discover that the gentleman staying at my rental cottage next door to the Village Craftsmen is the author of a book I had read recently, "The Riddle of Amish Culture." Donald Kraybill and his wife, Fran, are spending the week at "Lawton's" and finding the house and the terrific weather much to their liking. I had not only read Donald's book; I had thoroughly enjoyed his writing style, his breadth of knowledge, and his sympathetic portrayal of a unique American cultural group.
-John Taylor Gatto of Yes Magazine wrote:[http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=794]
-:Donald Kraybill of Johns Hopkins studied a thousand Amish businesses for a book published in 1995 called Amish Enterprise. He had this to say:
-:“They challenge a lot of conventional assumptions about what it takes to enter business. They don’t have high school educations, they don’t have specialized training, they don’t use computers, they don’t use electricity or automobiles, they don’t have training in how to create a marketing plan.
-:But the resources they transfer over from the farm are: an entrepreneurial spirit, a willingness to take risks, innovativeness, a strong work ethic, a cheap family labor pool, and high standards of craftsmanship. One of their values is smallness. They don’t want their shops and industries to get large. This spreads entrepreneurship widely across the whole settlement.”
-However, as much as Kraybill may express admiration for the plain sects, Kraybill obviously chooses to study them, rather than join them.
 ==Degrees==