Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof

Baum's highly readable account examines the forces that shaped Arnold's life. He recreates a colorful era when thousands of young men and women in Weimar Germany rejected conventional mores and struck out on a different path. Arnold, a young and aspiring writer and speaker, played a prominent role in this ''Youth Movement,'' but later left the limelight to live the answers he had found, starting a small community based on Christ's teachings and example.

Against the Wind shows Arnold's wide-ranging influence on other spiritual leaders of his day, his lonely stand against the rise of Nazism, and his continuing legacy - the community movement he co-founded - which makes his life as relevant today as ever.