Mennonites in Canada, 1920-1940: A People's Struggle for Survival

Donavon L. Porter is a public-school teacher in Haileybury, Ontario.

Frank Epp’s second volume examining the history of the Mennonites in Canada focuses on the interval between the two World Wars. This was a period of great social pressure on all minority groups and the Mennonites were to be no exception. Epp outlines the prerequisites for Mennonite settlement, discusses the major concerns of the group, and illustrates the many diversities both among the main Mennonite groups and within the individual settlements. The reader soon discovers that there is no single “voice” speaking for the Mennonites in Canada but rather a conference of voices which tries to come to a consensus on issues affecting the special status of the Mennonite group. It is this lack of a readily identifiable leader which contributes to many of the problems facing the Mennonites during this period. Dealing with the resentment resulting from the Great War, the Mennonites’ German ancestry, and the anti-military stand inherent in their fundamental beliefs, becomes a major concern of the group. Assimilationist pressures and economic malaise then cause the Mennonites to face the questions of public school education, maintenance of the German language, employment off the land, and modernism in the form of dress and social change. The inflexibility of some provincial and federal governments leads some Mennonite communities to emigrate, while the revolution in Russia creates a need to welcome Mennonite immigrants and to establish new Mennonite communities.

Epp’s analysis of these events and the Mennonite response is well-researched, -documented and -written. The book is clearly written in a manner appropriate for the general reader while at the same time offering solid historical material of value to any serious student of Canadian history.