Relying on documents and interviews, Oved (history, Tel Aviv Univ.) provides a readable and scholarly narrative history of the Bruderhof, which began as a small commune of pacifist students in Germany in 1919. Their goal was not to escape the difficulties of post-WW I Germany but to demonstrate the possibility of maintaining in this world a cooperative life rooted in Anabaptist religious beliefs... Oved adds a personal dimension when discussing several contacts with the Kibbutz movements throughout Bruderhof history... The appendix includes a useful chronology and a thorough index. Genderal; undergraduate through professional. --R. L. Herrick, Choice With admirable objectivity combined with sensitive empathy, Yaacov Oved presents the first comprehensive and detailed history of the communitarian movement known variously as the Hutterian Society of Brothers, Society of Brothers, or simply as the Bruderhof... Scholars studying historic and current communitarian movements dare not bypass this well-informed and well-balanced book. Historians of religious movements and social scientists will also profit from its compelling pages. --Donald F. Durnbaugh, Society Eberhard and Emily Arnold, typically idealistic German youth, became disillusioned by the direction German religion and society were taking after World War I. Searching for a better way, they proceeded to put their ideals into action which resulted in the Society of Brothers... It encountered opposition and hostility almost immediately after its formation, and finally expulsion from Germany by the newly entrenched Nazi regime... Yaacov Oved has done a great service in providing a well ordered mass of materials on the history and development of TSOB. --Calvin Redekop, Utopian Studies Yaacov Oved, veteran member of Kibbutz Palmachim... has continued his work on communal settlements, returning to a movement with which he has special emotional and personal ties--the Bruderhof, or Society of Brothers... Professor Oved presents a detailed and accurate account of their historical development in the attractive style that distinguished his former work: the narrative is interlaced with illuminating, often moving, quotations from archival sources, reminiscences, and interviews by the author. His description of historical events is impeccable, and he has taken pains to ensure that both sides of controversial issues, such as the crisis of the sixties, are presented. --Henry Near, The European Legacy Bruderhof in German means place of brothers and it is the communal life of these Christian men and women that has drawn Oved to write the best outside account of this church-community... In this major, carefully researched and very readable work it is clear that... Oved has had the open trust of the men and women of the Bruderhof and has written an account in which they can see themselves accurately portrayed... The strength of Oved's account lies in its sympathetic and critical telling of the Bruderhof story combined with some shrewd analysis at the end. Oved also deals fairly and objectively with those alienated members who have left, or were exiled... I am heartened that quietly there are places where the dreams of prophets and socialists are being fulfilled and where swords have been converted into plough shares... Oved, in writing such a book as this, adds his own witness of hope not only for the Kibbutz movement and Israel but for all of us. --Andrew Bolton, Times Literary Supplement The Witness of the Brothers is a landmark study.. .Oved produces insights that offer the reader vivid images of the turbulent history and communal way of life of the Society of Brothers. His exhaustive research...extensive interviews with members, careful documentation, and a highly readable narrative make this book a significant contribution to the history of religion and communitarianism. --Donald E. Pitzer, professor and chair, Department of History, director, Center for Communal Studies, University of Southern Indiana Yaacov Oved, one of the world's leading authorities on communal movements, has produced the first comprehensive history of the Bruderhof, a Christian pacifist community that continues to thrive three-quarters of a century after its founding. Marked by a thoroughness of research, clarity of expression, and soundness of judgment. The Witness of the Brothers is alive with intelligence, sparkles with originality, and fills a conspicuous gap in the history of modern communes. --Paul Avrich, Distinguished Professor of History, The City University of New York [The Witness of the Brothers] has been eagerly awaited: Its writing is the product not only of painstaking research, drawn from the Bruderhofs own archives and from other sources, but also from a long and close association with some of the movement's central figures. Fellow scholars knew that the task would be challenging. In part, this is because the story of the Bruderhof spans continents as well as decades... But in part the writing of this history is challenging because of a need to walk an Ideological tightrope, being drawn close to the inner spirit of the movement and enjoying access to protected sources, yet at the same time maintaining the essential impartiality of a scholar. --Professor Dennis Hardy, past vice-president of the International Communal Studies Association, pro vice-chancellor, Middlesex University, U.K. The Witness of the Brothers is an important addition to the literature concerning communal societies and movements. It is the first work that deals with the entire history of the Bruderhof Communities, from their origins in post-World War One Germany to the present day... The Witness of the Brothers is written by a scholar who is also a kibbutznik, and chronicles the connections between the Bruderhof and the kibbutz down the years assiduously. Whilst sympathetic to the Bruderhof, Professor Oved deals with some of the difficult questions raised by events in its history in a clear and frank manner. --Dr. Michael Tyldesley, Department of Politics and Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan University, U.K.
