Diaspora in the Countryside : Two Mennonite Communities and Mid-Twentieth Century Rural Disjuncture

From the 1930s to the 1980s, the North American countryside faced a profound cultural transformation in which a once-unified rural society became fragmented and dispersed. Families wishing to remain on the farm were required to accept new levels of automation, while others, unwilling or unable to make the change, migrated to nearby towns or regional cities. The cultural reformulation that resulted saw the emergence of a genuine rural diaspora. The growing cultural and physical separation was especially true for close-knit, ethno-religious communities, Mennonites, in particular. Forced into regional cities, the kaleidoscopic urban culture further fragmented the Mennonites into disparate social entities. In Diaspora in the Countryside , the phenomena of rural fragmentation is examined by comparing and contrasting two closely-related but distinctive Dutch-Russian Mennonite communities located in different parts of the continent: Kansas and Manitoba, respectively. By systematically comparing these communities, two distinctive responses to the mid-twentieth century 'Great Disjuncture' are made apparent. Royden Loewen also contrasts the cultural changes of these farm families to the cultures their kin adopted in nearby towns and cities. Loewen charts not only the dispersion of two rural communities, but follows their former residents as they reformulate their lives in new settings. Contents 7 Preface 9 Maps 17 Introduction 25 1. The Great Disjuncture and Ethnic Farmers: Life in Two Corners of a Transnational Grassland 42 2. Snowdrift and Dust Bowl: The Environment and Cultural Change 58 3. ‘Hold Your Heads High in Your Usual Unassuming Manner’: Making a Mennonite Middle Class 82 4. Joy and Evangelicalism: Rediscovering Faith in Kansas 106 5. Beyond Shunning: Reconfiguring the Old Manitoba Bruderschaft 126 6. The Rise and Fall of the Cheerful Homemaker: Womanhood in Kansas 148 7. Poultrymen, Car Dealers, and Football Stars: Masculinities in Manitoba 169 8. Reinventing Mennonite Tradition: Old Ways in the Jungles of British Honduras 193 9. Fragmented Freedoms: Studies of Mennonites in Winnipeg and Denver 226 Conclusion 252 Notes 261 Bibliography 323 Index 341