Customer Reviews

Plains Folk: North Dakota's Ethnic History (North Dakota Centennial Heritage Series)

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Open the book and begin reading anything that catches your eye. You will be blown away by the history these folks have captured. History of small ethnic groups including the Amish,the Mennonites, the Syrian-Lebanese, and on and on and on.

More than 400 pages of small font; at a larger font, this book would have required two volumes. If in Williston, ND, pick it up at Books on Broadway. The book is not available from Amazon except through resellers.

Father Sherman and his colleagues have done a magnificent job of research, analysis and compilation in the highly readable history of my home state. For example: who knew there were German enclaves in Russia (and the Ukraine)with a total population numbering in the tens of thousands? And that many of these Russo-Germans immigrated to the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Many of these immigrants settled in ND along with, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Germans, English, etc. And that they tended to settle together in their own little communities, spoke their own language, and built their own churches? All this is here and more in this comprehensive, huge volume. A must for anyone grown up on the prairie.

This book was given to a neighbor friend who is from Fargo, North Dakota, but I had a chance to flip through the pages before giving the book up. The book appears to be very well organized, and from what I could gleen from the pages and photographs, it is structured well to represent all aspects of the lifestyles within the various counties and cities of early North Dakota. If you're from North Dakota, and are interested in early history of that state, as well as the ethnic history, I recommend this book. A great coffee table book.