This book ignited a new interest in the study of historical Anabaptists and their views. It is well documented and does not show the bias of many previous church historians. The book is not only a history but explains how the Anabaptist view of the church differed from the other Protestant reformers and its influence on modern church life. A good concise view of historical Anabaptist beliefs.

If you ever wondered where Theonomists, Christian Reconstructionists and other right wing civil-violence supporting movements came from this is a must read book. Verduin successfully seperates the wheat of peaceful Christianity from the chaff of civil-religion and demonstrates how vastly more wise step-children can be from parents. Anyone who has ever been surrounded by a person who believed they had a divine mission to govern the world will get a kick out of this book (no pun intended). A must read for religious libertarians, but be prepared to have your saints soiled. "The Reformers and Their Stepchildren," reads like a horticultural digest, and Verduin, the Sunday morning tv-religion gardening expert, demonstrates that in the war between weeds and crops, you better be scared. Whether you're Christian, Jewish, Sikh or Confucian, the weeds and flowers raised in this garden are perennial. -Two Thumbs Up for the Flowers

Around 10 years ago I borrowed a copy of this book to read.
After reading it once I borrowed it again to re-read. The author
did a great service in uncovering the European historical records on Christian sects which, during the 400AD to post-Reformation period, were accused as 'heretics' by the 'church'(the one wielding worldly power and influence). It is an excellent scholarly book(the author has the entire text and footnotes in the original languages) covering in detail much of the historical context for the doctrinal fight which the followers of Jesus Christ have had in 'contending the faith' since the Apostle-age. Highly recommended!!- and I hope it's obvious historical value can merit a reprinting.

Reverend Leonard Verduin devoted his life to serving the Lord. He died in Nov., 1999, at the age of 102, still working on his writing until the last couple of months of a rich, God-Fearing life. This is just one of the books he wrote in an effort to inform his fellow-man of the true history of Christianity since Jesus Christ brought Salvation to this world. Leonard was a Fulbright scholar who not only spent a full year researching the original ancient and pre-modern records in Europe, but also devoted decades to research in many facets of history and other subjects. He had a truly idetic memory and could perfectly recall everything he ever read. He was a brilliant linguist, who read the texts in their original forms. He translated many works. He dedicated his life to the Lord at an early age and steadfastly held to the course. If you want to truly understand Christianity's history, this book is a must-read, together with his book published in 1998, "That First Amendment and the Remnant". His other works are also first-rate!

Having just read Goldhgen's book "Hitler's Willing Executioners" and then "Hyping the Holocaust", I have four comments: 1. It is ironic that the editor makes his living "hyping the holocaust". 2. Calling Neusner a scholar is stretching a point; he must be bitterly disappointed that he never received a Harvard appointment. 3. Most of the contributors appear not to have read Goldhagen's book or at least they attack arguments which Goldhagen did not make. 4. If you take the sum of Goldhagen's arguments with which one or more of the contributors agree, you will find they support almost all of Goldhagen's arguments.

Overall, this collection is a disappointment: not enough of the essays are at the highest level of quality. Some are good, though: Yehuda Bauer's article is a balanced assessment, Jacob Neusner's critique is sharp, but not without some effective points, and Eberhard Jaeckel's critique is well-founded (but gracelessly translated). Contrary to claims that Jacob Neusner is not a sound scholar, I would like to point out that he is one of the leading specialists on the history of Judaism in the world, that he has written or edited dozens of books, and that he has received six honorary degrees from leading universities throughout the world. If you're skeptical, you can find a bibliography of his many books and a copy of his article on Goldhagen at the "Jewish Communication Network" home page (Neusner is among other things a rabbi too). I think it's wrong to suggest that these critical articles end up supporting Goldhagen. Goldhagen is obviously in large part right to insist on the importance of anti-semitism in the Holocaust, and, of course, all serious scholars agree on that. The problem is that they have agreed on that for quite some time now, and Prof. Goldhagen is far from the first person to point it out. He is the first scholar (as far as I know) to argue that the sole motivation for the actions of Holocaust perpetrators was anti-semitism, and most scholars of the Holocaust have some serious doubts about that. If you want to decide whether Goldhagen is right or wrong, the way to do it is not to read his book and then these essays: you need to have independent knowledge. It's a lot of work, but you need to read Goldhagen, and then check his account against a good history of Germany like Gordon Craig's Germany 1866-1945 (Oxford). Look also at some of the histories of the Holocaust that Goldhagen says are so wrong, like Raul Hilberg's Destruction of the European Jews (Holmes and Meier). If you do that, you will see that Goldhagen's account of German history and of the historiography of the Holocaust has some serious inaccuracies, and that even some of the harsher criticisms in this book of essays often identify real defects in Goldhagen's work.