From the Inside Out: The Rural World of Mennonite Diarists, 1863 to 1929 ed. by Royden Loewen (review)

444 letters in canada 1999 Royden Loewen, editor. From the Inside Out: The Rural World of Mennonite Diarists, 1863 to 1929 University of Manitoba Press/Manitoba Record Society. xviii, 350. $24.95 Upon first glance this book seems an unusual collection, based as it is on a selection of Canadian Mennonite diary entries written between 1863 and 1929. Royden Loewen draws from the writings of Russian and Swiss Mennonites both young and old, male and female, and settled and immigrant, to present a range of Mennonite diarists who vary in terms of literary skill, social location, and introspection. I was not convinced at first that these texts B while fascinating for a picture of social life among Mennonites B merited publication as a book. My doubts were especially strong when reading the diary selections that are little more than weather observations in the manner of Ishmael Martin's 1929 entries: `May 20. A nice day. Hauled manure all day. May 21. A nice day. Sowed at Alberts.' Certainly the diaries are important sources for scholars of Mennonite life B but edited, collected, and published as a single text? After I reflected on the selections along with Loewen's introductions, however, the value of reading these diarists comparatively emerged. Margarethe Reimer's soul-searching attempts to adapt to life in a new country next to Martin's matter-of-fact recording of weather and farm chores provide a stark contrast that could be plumbed for what it reveals about other religious and cultural differences. Encompassing these differences, are similarities that remind the reader of the common harshness of the earlier landscape. All the writers, regardless of style or ability, confront the reader with pithy examples of practicality mixed with faith in response to misfortune, like Cornelius Loewen's 13 December 1876 entry after a snowstorm : `Heinrich Wiebe, Blumenort, was unable to find the way home and froze to death. We always have things to ponder: that we might be faithful to the end and not assume too many things; that, or what we must do when such weather strikes.' Or, Maria Stoesz Klassen's entry of 1 November 1887: `Mrs. Neufeld was taken to her resting place at the cemetery. Mrs. H. Berg and I put the last dress attire on her. Tomorrow, if it is the will of God, we want to slaughter hogs. I am sick.' This kind of practical theology is perhaps the most persistent theme throughout the diaries, whether in reference to slaughtering hogs in Manitoba or satirizing Lutherans while church-hopping in Waterloo County. Loewen provides useful and thoughtful introductions to situate the selections. He sets the diaries within both local and wider contexts in terms of the way the diaries turn the `hidden contours of household and community ``inside out,''' their relation to the history of literacy within Mennonite communities, and the way they compare to other regional Canadian diarists. More disclosure of how he selected entries and a discussion of some of the particular issues raised in the more interesting humanities 445 entries (for example, Russian Mennonite Margarethe Reimer's deep anger at her brother's flirtation with a Swiss Mennonite woman) would have improved the text. As well, more discussion of possible methodological approaches to these diaries, perhaps in a concluding chapter, would have been welcome. Though Loewen's use of historical sources to situate the various writers in their communities enriches the texts and does some of this methodological reflection via practice, he seems at times to let the broader sources drown out the voice of the diarist. For example, his repeated description of Abraham Reimer as a `lazy' failure, though not necessarily Loewen's own words, is not the dominant image evoked by Abraham's diary B that of a man who cares for his children, visits them regularly, and is aware of the social crises of his community. Though Reimer may not have become wealthy, repeatedly defining his life in the terms of economic success seems an injustice. This last point raises an important question about diaries as sources for scholars: how much and what kind of credibility do we give to life writings? Can a diarist contradict a portrait...