The Amanas Yesterday - Tapa blanda

Gradual change from a communal way of life with strong respect for tradition. People were rarely alone in the old Amanas. Historic photographs. Amana Colonies are located in middle eastern Iowa. Though time took its toll on the communal life in the Amana Colonies, the spirit of strength and sincerity continues as a legacy to the new era in these seven villages in Iowa. The photograph at the end of the book conveys the spirit and sincerity imbued by this heritage. Children are pictured walking in the Schulwald (school woods, so named because the trees were planted by school pupils) pine forest. "The trees became tall and erect, and they whispered in the wind, and walking beneath their lacy boughs became one of the soft delights of communal Amana." The trees of the Schulwald were felled for lumber, at the request of the United States Government during World War II, but the visual impressions and historic testimony of a people's heritage are preserved in The Amanas Yesterday. Today, the Amana Colonies are Iowa's largest tourist attraction with more than a million visitors annually. Visitors find a heritage preserved in the museums, former communal kitchens and living quarters, furniture factories, woolen mill, family-style restaurants, unique stores and shops, traditional meat processing plants and bakeries, wineries, industriously farmed land and a major industry in the nationally successful Amana Refrigeration Plant. Paperback, 8 1/2 x 11", 48 pages. ISBN 09-60385-88-6 ISBN-13: 9780960385881

Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret has worked for over 60 years in photography including nature photographs, photographs she took herself of the birth of her first son in 1951, and of people involved in the 1960s civil rights struggles in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Joan was elected into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. She has contributed over a million negatives to the Historical Society of Iowa. Joan has worked in the publishing field for over 30 years producing books and cookbooks of ethnic interest, state, historical, and local books. She is the publisher of Penfield Books.