Mennonites and their forebears are usually thought to be a people with little interest or involvement in politics. Mennonites, Politics, and Peoplehood reveals that since their early history, Mennonites have, in fact, been active participants in worldly politics. From western to eastern Europe and through different migrations to North America, James Urry’s meticulous research traces Mennonite links with kingdoms, empires, republics, and democratic nations in the context of peace, war, and revolution. Urry stresses a degree of Mennonite involvement in politics not previously discussed in literature, including Mennonite participation in constitutional reform and party politics, and shows the polarization of their political views from conservatism to liberalism and even revolutionary activities. Urry looks at the Mennonite reaction to politics and political events from the Reformation onwards and focuses particularly on those people who settled in Russia and their descendants who came to Manitoba. Using a wide variety of sources, Mennonites, Politics, and Peoplehood combines an inter-disciplinary approach to reveal that Mennonites, far from being the “Quiet in the Land,” have deep roots in politics.

Founded in part on a rejection of "worldly" power and the use of force, Anabaptism carried with it the promise of redemptive power. Yet the attempt to banish worldly power to the margins of the Christian community has been fraught with dilemmas, contradictions, and, at times, blatant abuses of authority. In this groundbreaking book, Benjamin W. Redekop, Calvin W. Redekop, and their coauthors draw on classic and contemporary thinking to confront the issue of power and authority in the Anabaptist-Mennonite community. From the power relationships of the sixteenth-century Peasants' War to issues of contemporary sexuality, the topics of Power, Authority, and the Anabaptist Tradition are sure to interest a wide audience. Contributors: Stephen C. Ainlay, College of the Holy Cross • J. Lawrence Burkholder, President Emeritus, Goshen College • Lydia Neufeld Harder, Toronto School of Theology • Joel Hartman, University of Missouri • Jacob A. Loewen, missionary, retired • Dorothy Yoder Nyce, Writer and former Assistant Professor, Goshen College • Lynda Nyce, Bluffton College • Wesley Prieb (deceased), former dean, Tabor College • Benjamin W. Redekop, Kettering University • Calvin W. Redekop, Conrad Grebel College, emeritus • James M. Stayer, Queen's University, Ontario

Classified bibliography of all doctoral research (thesis) on Russia and the USSR, accepted by american, Canadian and British universities from 1960 to 1975.