A Community of Memory

In this fascinating series
of narratives, many voices of Jeff Gundy's Amish and Mennonite forebears
trace their paths and chronicle their lives. Women and men speak in these
pages, telling their stories and linking themselves to each other, the
past, and the present. Gundy demonstrates that who he is--who we all are--is
shaped by a past peopled with those who worked, loved, dreamed, and died.
By sharing his community of memory, he makes us desire to seek out our
own.
Using family photos, records,
recollections, and historical research, Gundy follows seven generations
through time and space: from Bavaria and Alsace to Ohio to Illinois in
the 1830s; from frontier dwellings with dirt floors to homes with refrigerators.
He also follows them intellectually, from a strict to a broader interpretation
of religious doctrine in the 1870s, which led to a schism within the already
small Mennonite community; from a long-standing position on pacifism and
conscientious objection to some questioning of this stance during World
War II.