Village Among Nations
"Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916-2006
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2013
- Category
- General, Mennonite, Mexico
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781442646858
- Publish Date
- Nov 2013
- List Price
- $93.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781442614673
- Publish Date
- Oct 2013
- List Price
- $47.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781442666733
- Publish Date
- Dec 2013
- List Price
- $37.95
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
Between the 1920s and the 1940s, 10,000 traditionalist Mennonites emigrated from western Canada to isolated rural sections of Northern Mexico and the Paraguayan Chaco; over the course of the twentieth century, they became increasingly scattered through secondary migrations to East Paraguay, British Honduras, Bolivia, and elsewhere in Latin America. Despite this dispersion, these Canadian-descendant Mennonites, who now number around 250,000, developed a rich transnational culture over the years, resisting allegiance to any one nation and cultivating a strong sense of common peoplehood based on a history of migration, nonviolence, and distinct language and dress.
Village among Nations recuperates a missing chapter of Canadian history: the story of these Mennonites who emigrated from Canada for cultural reasons, but then in later generations “returned” in large numbers for economic and social security. Royden Loewen analyzes a wide variety of texts, by men and women – letters, memoirs, reflections on family debates on land settlement, exchanges with curious outsiders, and deliberations on issues of citizenship. They relate the untold experience of this uniquely transnational, ethno-religious community.
About the author
Royden Loewen is a senior scholar at the University of Winnipeg. His books include Horse-and-Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World and Village Among Nations: "Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916–2006.
Editorial Reviews
‘Loewen has created a sources that transcends the academy and is accessible for a broad audience….The book’s most significant contribution is that it creates a scholarly map identifying the terrain for future studies. As such, this is a path breaking work.’
Journal of Mennonite Studies, vol 32:2014
‘Royden Loewen’s monograph is a fantastic, insightful, and nuanced study… The book is an important contribution to migration history and is a must read for anybody interested in adding transnational perspectives to Canadian history.’
Canadian Historical Review vol 97:01:2016
‘Village among Nations is a patiently pieced together patchwork of memoirs, letters, newspapers, diaries, and the research of graduate students; what emerges from the many pieces is a coherent and compelling whole, the most comprehensive portrait of the Low German world to date.’
The Mennonite Quarterly Review; January 2015
Other titles by
Mennonite Farmers
A Global History of Place and Sustainability
Horse-and-Buggy Genius
Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World
Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable
Chilean Exiles in Ontario and Quebec, 1973-2010
Immigrants in Prairie Cities
Ethnic Diversity in Twentieth-Century Canada
Diaspora in the Countryside
Two Mennonite Communities and Mid-Twentieth Century Rural Disjuncture
Hidden Worlds
Revisiting the Mennonite Migrants of the 1870s
From the Inside Out
The Rural Worlds of Mennonite Diarists
Family, Church, and Market
A Mennonite Community in the Old and the New Worlds, 1850-1930