Mennonites in American Society, 1930-1970Modernity and the Persistence of Religious Community Mennonites Experience in America, Vol. 4 |
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"In this volume a gifted historian of ideas, Paul Toews, offers rich interpretive insights on the journey of a people through a traumatic period of lows and highs. . . . It tells of a people who for three centuries both resisted and yielded to the conformist pressures of American society."
--Robert Kreider in the Series Introduction
Paul Toews, in this fourth and final volume of the Mennonite Experience in America series, examines ways progressive Mennonites have slowed their absorption into American culture through creating institutional systems, refining and rearticulating ideologies, building ecumenical alliances, and developing a service and missional activism.
Meanwhile, the Amish have formed a creative set of adaptive strategies that permit economic integration and social isolation.
Wars were common throughout 1930-1970 and posed serious challenges to these peaceable peoples. Though somewhat shaken, Mennonites and Amish were able to surmount crises to become a more visible and respected people than ever before during their more than 300 years in America.
"Paul Toews is a skillful historian . . . with his skills he has drawn out very well the major themes of Mennonites' interaction with America from 1930 to 1975. The aim of the MEA volumes has been to tell both of Mennonites and of America. Like its predecessors, the newest MEA volume does exactly that."
--Theron Schlabach, MEA editor, in Foreword
About the Author
Paul Toews, Fresno, California, is professor of history at Fresno Pacific College, director of the Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, and executive secretary of the Historical Commission of the Mennonite Brethren Church. Paul is editor and author of numerous volumes and articles on North American Mennonite history.