Market Integration and Agricultural Efficiency of Communal Amana

DURING MY LAST VISIT TO AMANA in the Summer of 1991, Henry Schiff, the guide at the Museum of Amana History, presented me a challenge with his comment: "I've seen many writers and would-be-writers come and go over the years.Very few have been able to understand what happened here."I am not exactly sure what he meant.Surely, volumes of research devoted to Amana history could not be futile.The comment nevertheless registered the question in my mind whether a different approach might be necessary for a better understanding of Amana history.I would like to inquire here into the truth of Mr. Schiff's allegation.We might start by asking whether a different set of questions is necessary to improve our understanding of Amana history.It is possible, for instance, that the focus on the "Great Change" of 1932when business was separated from church and communal ownership of property was abolished-might have produced an unbalanced historiography of Amana.The Great Change was certainly an important point in Amana history.The danger lies, however, in viewing the pre-1932 period solely as consisting of events leading to the Great Change, which undermines the importance of life in communal Amana.Close to 90 years of communal history certainly justifies its own study and a shift of focus from the decline of the Society to its persistence.The focus on the Great Change might be considered appropriate if the usual presumption of social and economic isolation of the