Philip E. Webber is professor emeritus of German and linguistics at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he was on the faculty from 1976 to 2010. Specializing in German American ethnicity and sociolinguistics, medieval studies, and Netherlandic studies, he is also the author of Kolonie-Deutsch: Life and Language in Amana (expanded paperback edition, Iowa, 2009) and Zoar in the Civil War.