From the inside out the rural worlds of Mennonite diarists, 1863 to 1929
Record details
- ISBN: 0887553222 (electronic bk.)
- ISBN: 9780887553226 (electronic bk.)
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Physical Description:
1 online resource (xii, 350 p.) : ill., map.
remote
electronic resource - Publisher: Winnipeg, Man. : University of Manitoba Press, c1999.
Content descriptions
General Note: | Issued as part of the desLibris books collection. CatMonthString:jan.13 CatMonthString:august.17 CatBulkString:jan.03.13 Multi-User. Co-published by Manitoba Record Society. |
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-344) and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Migrating men -- Immigrant women -- Old men and young boys -- Merchant fathers -- Married men and their work -- Bishops and evangelists -- Farm women -- Diverging paths. |
Source of Description Note: | Description based on print version record. |
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Genre: | Diaries. History. Sources. Electronic books. Electronic books. |
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Electronic resources
- Chicago Distribution CenterHistorian Royden Loewen has brought together selections from diaries kept by 21 Mennonites in Canada between 1863 and 1929, some translated from German for the first time. By skillfully comparing and contrasting a wide cross-section of lives, Loewen shows how these diaries often turn the hidden contours of household and community âinside out.âThe writers featured were ordinary rural people: young women and grandmothers, rural preachers and landless householders. They include a teenaged boy who immigrated from Russia to Manitoba in 1875 as well as a successful merchant, a traveling evangelist, and a devout, conservative church elder. An elderly grandfather recounted the daily circuit of his childrenÃs homes, while 19-year-old Marie Schoeder wrote of her literary aspirations, her âsecret hopeâ that some day she would âwrite things that have a real worth, things that are worth printing, and things that other folks would love to read and pay for.âFrom the Inside Out also contrasts diaries from two distinct Mennonite communities in Canada. The Swiss-American Mennonites in Waterloo County, Ontario, faced rapid urbanization, while the Dutch-Russian Mennonites in southern Manitoba maintained their more rural environment. The diaries mirror their writersâ preoccupations with work and weather, but they also reveal a communityâs social structure and round of activities such as weddings, funerals, and worship services.In the process of diary-keeping, the writers sought to make sense of a dynamic and often unpredictable world. Reading what they chose to record is to learn much about their culture. Their writings provide glimpses of their lives, their collective mindset, and their history as a people.