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Bucks County Fraktur Edited by Cory M. Amsler Doylestown & Kutztown, PA: Bucks County Historical Society and the Pennsylvania German Society, 2001. 387 pages, well-illustrated, $64.95 (hb). Available from www.pgs.org Reviewed by Scott H. Suter This volume, based on a 1997 exhibit developed by the Bucks County Historical Society, pulls together significant new thoughts on fraktur by an impressive array of scholars and students of Pennsylvania German culture. Along with a collection of ten essays the book offers stunning photographic images of the works discussed. The addition of a guide to the artists of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, as well as translations of the German text on many of the examples makes the work doubly useful for those interested in this type of American traditional art. Despite the book's title--the editor admits that "clearly there is no such thing as a Bucks County fraktur style" (195)--it deals with a range of topics well beyond that geographical region. The collection opens with the groundbreaking essay on fraktur by the well-known Bucks County resident Henry C. Mercer. An early leader in the study of material folk culture, Mercer presented "The Survival of the Mediaeval Art of Illuminative Writing Among Pennsylvania Germans" to the American Philosophical Society in 1897, and it is reprinted here for the first time since then. Regardless of the outdated scholarship it represents, the essay is important as the earliest recognition of this traditional art form and for Mercer's informants' close connection to the pieces he describes. This article is followed by two offerings from the widely-respected folklife scholar Don Yoder, whose essays take a broad look at the backgrounds of fraktur as well as the meaning of the texts of the certificates. Yoder suggests that the origins of Pennsylvania German fraktur lie in the trickling down of baroque era tastes of Central European upper classes during the Renaissance. He clearly demonstrates that the value placed on decorative penmanship found its way through public officials to schoolmasters and finally to the rural cultures of German-speaking lands, eventually finding its way to America. In his second essay Yoder argues that more emphasis needs to be placed on analyzing the texts of fraktur. This, he believes, will offer a clearer insight into the culture that used and cherished these items. He notes that "in these pieces, which we treat as art, the Pennsylvania German boy or girl, man or woman reconfirmed the moral ideas taught him or her by parents, schoolmasters, and ministers" (58). These certificates were not seen as decorative art, but instead as devotional pieces which the owner would pull periodically from their Bible or chest for inspiration. There is little evidence, he points out, that fraktur was ever hung on the walls of a home. Subsequent essays in this collection are more regional in their focus, detailing the cultural history of Bucks County, the importance of Pennsylvania-German schools to the area and their role in perpetuating the fraktur tradition, and several analyses of Mennonite fraktur artists. Michael Bird takes the story beyond Pennsylvania to examine the fraktur of migrant Mennonites in the Niagra Pennisula of Ontario, Canada, and Russell D. and Corrine P. Earnest focus on "scriveners," or professional penmen, detailing the role which they played in the move from completely freehand fraktur to decorated printed forms. Their study illuminates the interesting change of taste in fraktur design and decoration as other aspects of American material culture changed in the Victorian era. The book closes with Amsler's extremely useful "catalogue and guide" to the known artists in Bucks County and its surroundings. The guide arranges the artists into two groups: Mennonite artists and those of Lutheran and Reform congregations. Mennonite traditions largely exclude the baptismal certificate (Taufscheine) and so for ease of comparison Amsler has separated that school from the Lutheran and Reformed school which produced numerous examples of this form. This book is a significant addition to the study of fraktur in America and should be read by any serious student of the subject. While the title may mislead the reader into expecting a limited look at a specific region in Pennsylvania, much of the book applies to all regions where fraktur flourished. Granted, the catalogue of artists and several of the essays do focus on the Bucks County area; however, even these studies offer insights into the tradition in general. Put simply, Bucks County Fraktur is the best recent book on the subject of fraktur in North America.