The contributions in this book are the fruits of sixteen European and North American scholars who gathered at the Free University in Amsterdam in 2007 to investigate various depictions and portrayals of Anabaptist, Doopsgezind and Mennonite women within the religious, cultural and social settings of Switzerland, the Tirol, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Prussia and Tsarist Russia. Appropriating a case studies approach, and concentrating on the everyday experience of ordinary women, the authors employ the theory of imagology, a relatively new methodology centred on the study of stereotypes and characterisations. Several questions govern the investigations of the authors. For example, how and for what reasons did certain images and portrayals of Anabaptist women come into being? How did characterisations of Anabaptist women by mainstream observers differ from descriptions that emerged from within the movement? How did Anabaptist women see themselves, and how was that image different from how men typically characterised them? In what ways did women in urbanised regions differ from their ‘sisters’ living in rural environs? As the volume demonstrates, the answers to such queries are complex and varied; they are as diverse as the innumerable circumstances that the Anabaptist women themselves experienced in diverse and dynamic social, religious and geographical landscapes across centuries of time. The volume's attention to the ‘longer history’ of Anabaptist women's experience is significant. Previous studies have tended to focus on revolutionary beginnings or the experience of women martyrs. This book signals a fresh start by including the movement's institutional phase as it evolved over the centuries. In the various time periods examined, women are not only seen as victims of negative stereotyping, but also creative designers of their own portrayals. Attention to the longue durée has resulted in an impressive volume that challenges some of the typical characterisations of women of dissenting tradition and radical reform. The essays have travelled a considerable distance in breaking new ground and in distinguishing myth from reality. They reflect a wealth of scholarship and should encourage further exploration in the study of Anabaptist, Mennonite and Doopsgezind women.