"The forebay bank barn, better known as the Pennsylvania barn or the Pennsylvania-German barn, is one of the most important agricultural structures to have been brought to North America from Europe. It was so ideally suited to agricultural practices on this side of the Atlantic - at least in the humid East and humid West - that it evolved and spread throughout the corn and wheat belts, from the Tidewater to Nebraska, Washington, and Oregon, from northern New York and southern Ontario to Tennessee and Texas." "In The Pennsylvania Barn Robert Ensminger provides the first comprehensive study of this important piece of American vernacular architecture. He offers a detailed examination of the Swiss prototype, including the emergence of the barn forebay in Switzerland. He traces the evolution of the barn in North America, charts its distribution, and considers its future." "The culmination of more than fifteen years of research, The Pennsylvania Barn will prove to be of value not only to cultural and historical geographers but also to everyone with an interest in folklore and architectural history - especially vernacular architecture and material culture. The text is supplemented with more than 40 maps and diagrams and 150 photographs."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved