The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 196
741 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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196 Southwestern Historical Quarterly July
show folded in 1932, any identifiable cultural message seemed long gone.
Former lo I employee Tom Mix continued this reprofiling of the "Wild West" to
suit shifting audience demands. In his films and, later, arena shows, Mix offered
"white heroes," nostalgia and action, moralistic plots, marginalized women and
Indians, distinctive (if improbable) western costumes, and spectacular stunt
work-in short, a West divorced from history or cultural subtleties, but one in
accord with the escapist expectations of Mix's time.
This work is a valuable addition to the literature of Western popular culture.
In establishing the line of descent from Catlin to Mix and even to present-day
Wild West enthusiasts, Reddin leaves the reader with tantalizing questions con-
cerning the intersection of popular culture and national identity, and clues
enough to pursue the matter further.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock DAVID WARE
Faith's Harvest: Mennonite Identity in Northwest Oklahoma. By Sharon Hartin Iorio.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Pp. xv+32o. Illustrations,
preface, introduction, appendix, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-8061-3119-5.
$27.95, cloth.)
Sharon Iorio identifies that the purpose of her work "is to preserve the collec-
tive recollections of these Mennonite people" of northwest Oklahoma (p. 5).
She interprets how their self-understanding has both changed and endured
throughout the twentieth century. She concludes that the "frames of reference"
of two Mennonite tenets, i.e., nonresistance and separatism, have shifted or
enlarged but nevertheless remained intact (p. 283). She warns the reader not to
expect Faith's Harvest to be a "historical description ... [or] a detailed sociologi-
cal analysis or [even a] communication study of the group" (p. 5). Still, one
could easily pursue this work from a historical approach.
The book is divided into three parts: the passage, settlement, and growth of
German Mennonite communities from Russia to Oklahoma's Cherokee outlet,
from the 1880os-1914; the harassment of these Mennonites during the anti-
German hysteria of World War I; and various changes occurring within this
group from the 192os to the 199os. Relying on secondary sources, Iorio begins
each chapter by setting the lives of the Oklahoma Mennonites within the con-
text of major events in U.S. history. Then she presents firsthand accounts from
family memoirs, local archives, and personal interviews to allow her subjects to
speak for themselves. For instance, Chapters One and Two recount the hard-
ships experienced by these ethnic Germans who left their farms in Russia, sailed
across the Atlantic Ocean, and homesteaded in Kansas and later in the great
land run in Oklahoma. She comments on their expert knowledge of farming
and ability to adapt to their new land and climate. In my opinion, Part I
recounts too much experiences that the author herself finally acknowledges are
hardly distinguishable from that of many other European agrarian immigrants.
For this reader, Parts II and III mark what is truly interesting about her work,
namely, the evolution of the Mennonite doctrines/practices of nonresistance
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/204/?rotate=180: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.