Life at Four Corners: Religion, Gender, and Education in a German-Lutheran Community, 1868-1945Defined less by geography than by demographic character, Block, Kansas, in many ways exemplifies the prevalent yet seldom-scrutinized ethnic, religion-based community of the rural Midwest. Physically small, the town sprang up around four corners formed by crossroads. Spiritually strong and cohesive, it became the educational and cultural center for generations of German-Lutheran families. In this book Carol Coburn analyzes the powerful combination of those ethnic and religious institutions that effectively resisted assimilation for nearly 80 years only to succumb to the influences of the outside world during the 1930s and 1940s. Emphasizing the formal and informal education provided by the church, school, and family, she examines the total process of how values, identities, and all aspects of culture were transmitted from generation to generation. |
Contents
Church | 31 |
School | 60 |
Family | 81 |
Henry Prothe family 1911 | 82 |
August Prothe family 1936 | 95 |
Wedding party 1914 | 109 |
The Outside World | 112 |
Hired girls in Paola 1918 | 123 |
At War with Germany | 136 |
Block soldier Martin Prothe 1918 | 138 |
Conclusion | 152 |
Note on Sources | 163 |
203 | |
219 | |
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Common terms and phrases
activities adult AHTA Alan Graebner American assembly Author interview behavior Block community C. F. W. Walther Catholic child church and school clergy Concordia Historical Institute Concordia Publishing House congregation culture discussion domestic early East Valley Township economic educational ethnic farm fathers female Frederick Luebke gender Gerda Lerner German language German Lutherans hired girls Historical Institute Quarterly History Immigrant Church important individual interactions Kansas City Kathleen Neils Conzen Ladies Aid Little Germany lived Louis Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Lutheran Witness Lydia Prothe Schultz male Marie Dageforde Monthey Miami County Miami County Republican Minden Minnie Cahman Debrick mission festival Missouri Synod mother nineteenth nineteenth-century Nora Ohlmeier Prothe organized Paola parochial school pastor Plains Quarterly played Protokoll Religion religious residents of Block role rural served social teacher theran tion Trinity Lutheran Church University Press urban voters Walther League Western Spirit women in Block World York