In the Valley of the Shadow: An Elegy to Lancaster County [Paperback]

Randy-Michael Testa (Author), Ed Worteck (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1996

A land controversy captures in microcosm the forces endangering the Amish and Mennonite culture, faith, and livelihood.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

6 x 9 trim. 28 photos. LC 96-18055

About the Author

RANDY-MICHAEL TESTA is Assistant Visiting Professor of Education at Dartmouth College and author of After the Fire (1992). ED WORTEK's photographs have exhibited extensively. He is Professor of Art and Communication at Goucher College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: UPNE; 1st edition (October 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874517699
• ISBN-13: 978-0874517699
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,210,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging story of a fight to save historic farmland, March 9, 1999

By 

R. Fisher ([e-mail]) (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Valley of the Shadow: An Elegy to Lancaster County (Paperback)

Randy-Michael Testa's In the Valley of the Shadow is a sad tale of political manipulation and the commercial development of some of our nation's most historic farmland. At issue in his account are several farms in a previously undeveloped portion of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which give way to a retirement community that, in one fell swoop, is expected to increase the population of a bucolic farming community by 40%.

Mr. Testa's account should be of great interest to at least three different groups. Advocates of rural land preservation will read this book as a sort of morality tale, an account of failed grass-roots opposition to the narrow-minded business interests of a few powerful men. Residents of Lancaster County should be keenly interested in Mr. Testa's recounting of the operations of the zoning system at the hands of an elected but thoroughly undemocratic board of township supervisors. Persons of Mennonite faith or upbringing (such as this reader) will find much food for thought and reflection in this account, for Mennonite business leaders function as the central protagonists of this story, blithely oblivious to the contrast between their grasping, monetaristic goals and the egalitarian values of simplicity and service to others on which their Anabaptist culture is based.

The familiar tensions of the wider development debate are present here - in particular, the conflict between the rights of the individual to derive maximum pecuniary benefit from his or her property, on one hand, and the right of a community to establish land-use standards aimed at preserving its aesthetic and historical integrity, on the other hand. Several additional elements throw the tensions of this debate into higher relief in Mr. Testa's account. First is the sheer beauty of the rural farmland being developed. Second, the fact that this community is principally inhabited by Amish and Old Order Mennonite farmers - who do not vote as a matter of religious conscience and whose ancestors were those who initially cleared this land and established these farms, many generations ago - adds special poignancy to the sense of loss and makes the tale of political machination even more troubling. Third is the wide latitude of any resident of the region has witnessed several times how quickly pristine farmland can be converted into consumerist monstrosities worthy of the less elegant parts of Houston and Los Angeles.

This second book of Mr. Testa is more focused and tightly written than his first book, After the Fire, an exuberant and compelling account of life with an Amish family. In this second book, Mr. Testa shows a more mature understanding of the Lancaster County community, but also a greater sense of sadness and resignation. One hopes that Mr. Testa will not give up too easily. In particular, one hopes that Mr. Testa will seek to build further bridges to the politically influential Mennonite community on a grass-roots level, exploring the points of commonality between his ideals and the historical convictions of the Mennonite peoples. One hopes, too, that Mennonite readers will not be too quick to dismiss Mr. Testa's concerns without giving them careful and reasoned consideration, despite statements about certain Mennonite business leaders that some may consider inflammatory. (It is troubling that some Mennonite booksellers refuse to stock this book, which touches on themes so central to their lives.) As Mr. Testa suggests, it is in the hands of the Mennonite community, with their religious ideals or lack thereof, that the fate of the County lies