Horse-and-Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World by Royden Loewen

Abstract

Reviewed by: Horse-and-Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World by Royden Loewen L. Good Gingrich Horse-and-Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World. By Royden Loewen. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2016. vii + 238 pp. Illustrations, map, annotated bibliography, index. $27.95 CAD, $31.95 USD, paper. Loewen presents intimate and compelling testimonials from members of two distinct groups of traditional Mennonites—Old Colony Mennonites in Central and South America, and Old Order Mennonites in Ontario, Canada. The Old Order Mennonites of this research are of Swiss–South German descent, preserve their traditional language of Pennsylvania Dutch, have lived in close-knit agrarian communities in rural southern Ontario for over 200 years, and today number approximately 8,000. The estimated 100,000 Old Colony Mennonites are descendants of the Anabaptist movement in the Netherlands, and their histories of persecution, hardship, and migration are intertwined and (seemingly) endless. Today they live in (and move between) separate and largely self-contained colonies scattered throughout Mexico, Belize, Bolivia, and Paraguay, and strive to preserve their Plautdietsch language and way of life that is infused with a unique blend of Dutch, Russian, and Mexican food and culture. Despite their divergent geographic and linguistic histories, communities in these two groups of Mennonites share a religious commitment to lives of "continuity, simplicity, and obedience" (9). The "remarkable coincidence" (5) that identifies both Old Order and Old Colony Mennonites as "horse-and-buggy" people goes beyond outer expressions of antimodernity, as their accounts reveal similar lifestyle ideals and religious traditions that "emphasize the community over the individual, the local over the nation, simplicity over profit, and peace over violence" (4). Ironically, political borders and "earthly kingdoms" are used to frame the stories of two peoples whose practices and beliefs transcend such boundaries. The selection of these two groups of horse-and-buggy Mennonites is based on a shared link with Canada, yet this geopolitical connection is tenuous. The Canadian Old Order Mennonites are tied in culture and kin to the thousands of horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—communities that are curiously omitted from this study. The Canadian story for horse-and-buggy Old Colony Mennonites is limited to brief moments in their migratory history, and represents a "corrupting" land (201) where threats to their antimodern convictions drove them south in the 1920s, and where their colony lifestyle practices (including use of horse and buggy) must be forfeited when poverty and violence drive them back north. It is clear, through his own admission and [End Page 122] in his retelling of the stories, that Loewen's affection and affiliation favor the Old Colony Mennonites. This is not necessarily a weakness or flaw of this work, as all researchers, even historians, must write from our own peculiar perspective and bias. However, the uneven attention given the two groups, in both depth and breadth, suggests a competitive rather than comparative analysis. As a result, some distinctive features of each group are overlooked: the unique social and political structures of the Latin American colony and the Canadian farming community; differing roles, responsibilities, and status of women, due in part to dissimilar farming and livelihood practices; and widely divergent migration histories and associated meanings. Loewen urges the reader to take seriously the religious convictions of these peculiar peoples, and to recognize their daily life practices as challenge to "conspicuous consumption" (219) and the isolation of individualism. In this way, the work makes an important contribution to scholarship, especially in its engaging, personal, and respectful presentation of Old Colony Mennonite narratives. Their curious practices, which are often judged to be foolish and self-defeating, are re-storied in deeply rooted religious convictions and traditions. This re-framing is instructive for encounters with all groups who hold to a worldview and preserve a lifestyle that contest dominant norms. L. Good Gingrich School of Social Work and Centre for Refugee Studies York University, Canada Copyright © 2018 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln