Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Thesis.pdf (537.56 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

BREAKING THE MIGRATION PATTERN: WHY THE AMERICAN MENNONITES CHOSE TO STAY IN AMERICA DESPITE THE HARDSHIPS OF WORLD WAR ONE

Byler, Donovan T
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1621265986410877

Abstract Details

2021, BA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History.
With the involvement of the United States in World War One and the subsequent military service draft, American Mennonites found themselves in the same dilemma which had chased them from Europe to the Americas. The Mennonite beliefs on non-violence precluded most of them from involvement in war in any sense including non-combatant roles and the nation's government did not grant them an exception to war-time service. When previous generations of Mennonites faced a similar challenge, the most common response was a large-scale migration to a new land where they could find a reprieve from these pressures. With the American draft in 1917, American Mennonites chose to break the historical pattern and remain in America, weathering the consequences that came from their counter cultural beliefs. Using interviews from the Mennonite men who lived through the war period in America, diaries from the Russian Mennonites, and other sources, this study brings together historical research on the Russian Mennonite migration to the United States as a case study of the historical pattern of Mennonite migrations with the context surrounding the American Mennonites' choice to stay. The economy, the timing of the draft, the depth of the changes, and the closer ties between the American Mennonites and the American people all help explain how the American Mennonites chose to radically depart from both the cultural expectations around them and their own pattern of behavior.
Leslie Heaphy, PhD (Advisor)
Lindsey Starkey, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Katrina Bloch, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Amy Miracle, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
85 p.
American History; European History; Religious History; Russian History
Mennonites; Russian Mennonites; American Mennonites; World War One; Conscientious Objectors; nonviolence; migration;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Byler, D. T. (2021). BREAKING THE MIGRATION PATTERN: WHY THE AMERICAN MENNONITES CHOSE TO STAY IN AMERICA DESPITE THE HARDSHIPS OF WORLD WAR ONE [Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1621265986410877

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Byler, Donovan. BREAKING THE MIGRATION PATTERN: WHY THE AMERICAN MENNONITES CHOSE TO STAY IN AMERICA DESPITE THE HARDSHIPS OF WORLD WAR ONE. 2021. Kent State University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1621265986410877.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Byler, Donovan. "BREAKING THE MIGRATION PATTERN: WHY THE AMERICAN MENNONITES CHOSE TO STAY IN AMERICA DESPITE THE HARDSHIPS OF WORLD WAR ONE." Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1621265986410877

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ksuhonors1621265986410877
196
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University Honors College and OhioLINK.