A Geography of the Hutterites in North America by Simon M. Evans (review)

The late Simon Evans's A Geography of Hutterites in North America makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this distinctive ethnoreligious group and its impact on the Midwest and Great Plains. It does so by moving beyond past studies, many of which have focused on religious beliefs and practices, to focus on the geography of Hutterite settlements. Among other benefits, this approach allows Evans to link developments within this small, somewhat obscure community—developments such as diffusion, expansion, and economic diversification—to broader themes and scholarly conversations, including discourses of particular interest to readers of this journal.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section (chapters 1–6) offers a comprehensive geographical history of Hutterite settlement patterns from the group's European origins, migration to North America, and later distribution and resettlement across Canada and the U.S. Generally speaking, these chapters rely heavily on the standard secondary literature, especially studies of Hutterite history and religious practice such as John A. Hostetler's Hutterite Society (1974) and Rod Janzen and Max Stanton's The Hutterites in North America (2010). The exception to this rule is chapter six, which explores a period of time (1981–2015) during which the number of Hutterite colonies in North America doubled, largely as a result of colony division. This chapter draws upon extensive demographic data about Hutterite diffusion and resettlement digitized by Peter Peller, a librarian and geographic information systems specialist at the University of Calgary, in order to explore contemporary challenges to, as well as the persistence of, the "Hutterite way" during the community's recent history.

The second section (chapters 7–11) focuses on a constellation of issues arising from contemporary geographic settlement and diffusion patterns among North American Hutterites. Chapters seven and eight examine the internal demographic and external political and cultural pressures that govern Hutterite diffusion in the United States and Canada. Chapter nine explores the "cultural landscapes" that have developed as a result of Hutterite colonies, and chapters ten and eleven offer an analysis of the economic transformations and other "adaptive strategies" that Hutterites have employed in order to maintain their way of life. It should be noted that all of these chapters appeared previously as entries in edited collections or as standalone journal articles, either authored or co-authored by Evans, in a range of scholarly publications, such as Agricultural Studies, Great Plains Quarterly, and Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies. The benefit of A Geography of the Hutterites in North America, then, is in aggregating Evans's recent scholarship in one easily accessible volume.

For readers of Middle West Review, Evans's work will be most valuable insofar as it connects to broader themes and scholarly conversations about the Midwest and Great Plains. For example, Evans is attentive to the ways that Hutterites—historically an agricultural community—have adapted in recent years to changes in the farming economy. While they continue to have a significant impact as farmers, especially in the Canadian province of Alberta (Evans's extensive treatment of Hutterites' contributions to Alberta's farm economy is explored in chapter ten), the author demonstrates that Hutterite colonies "are devoting more attention to, and generating greater returns from, nonfarm activities" such as "manufacturing, including metal buildings and extruded sheet metal, print shops, chemical injection sales and service, kitchen equipment, signage, heat pumps, truck boxes, plastics, ventilation products, and windows and doors" (102). This transformation is especially true among Hutterite colonies in South Dakota (219ff). While Evans is particularly interested in the ways that these changes relate to Hutterites' ability to maintain their distinctive way of life, scholars interested in the impacts of mechanization and globalization on the Midwest and Great Plains regions, as well as those interested in the history of manufacturing in these regions, would nevertheless benefit from Evans's analysis.

Similarly, Evans's treatment of Hutterite colony growth since the 1980s will be of interest to scholars who...