An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community

Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies

by Charles E. Hurst, David L. McConnell

Holmes County, Ohio, is home to the largest and most diverse Amish community in the world. Yet, surprisingly, it remains relatively unknown compared to its famous cousin in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Charles E. Hurst and David L. McConnell conducted seven years of fieldwork, including interviews with over 200 residents, to understand the dynamism that drives social change and schism within the settlement, where Amish enterprises and nonfarming employment have prospered. The authors contend that the Holmes County Amish are experiencing an unprecedented and complex process of change as their increasing entanglement with the non-Amish market causes them to rethink their religious convictions, family practices, educational choices, occupational shifts, and health care options.

The authors challenge the popular image of the Amish as a homogeneous, static, insulated society, showing how the Amish balance tensions between individual needs and community values. They find that self-made millionaires work alongside struggling dairy farmers; successful female entrepreneurs live next door to stay-at-home mothers; and teenagers both embrace and reject the coming-of-age ritual, rumspringa.

An Amish Paradox captures the complexity and creativity of the Holmes County Amish, dispelling the image of the Amish as a vestige of a bygone era and showing how they reinterpret tradition as modernity encroaches on their distinct way of life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Amish, Amish Fiction

376 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2010

Reviews

[Saloma Furlong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever since I first heard about this book, I've been meaning to read it, and I'm glad I finally did. Well-researched and well-written, this is an important book because it is the first of its kind to look at the largest Ohio Amish community (what is often called the Holmes County community, though it encompasses several other counties). Books have been written about the better-known Lancaster Amish community in Pennsylvania, which is a very different community.

Holmes County has possibly the most diverse Amish population of Amish in given area. Most of this diversity is caused by church splits - both in the past and presently.

Hurst and McConnell explore many issues that are presented in a balanced way. These issues include diversity, technology, religious practices, education, and occupation.

Having grown up in a different Amish community in Ohio, I was aware of Holmes County, but it took until many years after leaving the Amish for me to realize how diverse the Amish really are. It may also be true that this diversity is increasing as the Amish population increases and new "daughter" settlements are established in new places.

I hope that Hurst and McConnell will update this book. The Holmes County Amish community is changing so rapidly, that certain parts of the book become outdated quickly. For instance, when they published this book there were three different Swartzentruber divisions and now there are five with another split happening (which will make six).

For anyone wanting to learn about Ohio's largest Amish community (it may be that it is also the largest Amish community, but that keeps changing between Holmes and Lancaster), this is a comprehensive look at that community.

[Marta Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying this look at the Ohio Amish community. Since I'm from Pennsylvania, I'm far more familiar with the Amish where I live. Interesting to see that there are differences.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the largest community of Amish in the country, you certainly cannot take a “one size fits all” approach to anything - whether it be schooling, healthcare, employment, or even church communities that populate Holmes County, Ohio. Here are represented the full spectrum of Amish faith communities from the extremely conservative Swartzentruber who eschew indoor plumbing and refuse reflective triangles on their buggies to the New New Order who paradoxically are some of most traditional concerning adolescents but allow more technology. In the middle are the Old Order Amish who strive for a middle way.

Years of sociological research, interviews, and patience have resulted in an incredibly detailed and revealing study on just how multifaceted Amish life is in Holmes County. Facing changes and pressures from inside and outside the church, the Amish have managed to maintain (for the most part) their traditional ways and faith. It is a testimony not only to the dedication of the researchers but to the Amish themselves.

Holmes County serves as a mirror and a contrast to Lancaster County PA, perhaps the most famous community of Amish. However, Holmes County definitely reflects a greater scope of the Amish’s experiences and lives. This is a fascinating book for anyone studying or working with the Amish but this book is not just for learning about the Amish for in the end, there are plenty of lessons that the “English” can learn from the Plain People.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for anyone who lives near an Amish community and wants to understand the people and their ways of life. The blanket, "one size fits all" statement about the Amish is clearly refuted in this informative book which uses years of research, direct communications with different people in many affiliations, and mountains of statistics to help the "English" better understand our Amish neighbors. It was fascinating.

[John Haake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is long -- LONG. It reads like a textbook. Full of studies and charts.

My wife and I endured to the end. There are certainly long moments of dull reading.

As a former member of a different religious cult (mormonism) I was hesitant to even re-enter the waters of studying another restrictive, repressive, mind-numbing organization. It was our book club's selection and I went along.

I did learn a lot about the Amish -- and living in Wayne County, OH just north of Holmes County, I thought I already had a pretty good handle on Amish culture.

While I don't find the Amish fascinating (as the author does) this book made me better aware of my many neighbors who are Amish.

Personal prophecy: Amish culture is doomed in not to many years. It will collapse -- broke -- once their "Amishisms" become so muted that their uniqueness will become invisible, and then tourism to Amish communities will collapse leaving them without a significant portion of profits that are currently keeping them afloat. The Amish people will be better for it -- let's hope the "English" will learn the few redeeming qualities of their lifestyle before that inevitable decline.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written book. Growing up in New Jersey, my family would often take drives out to Pennsylvania, through Amish country. All I knew was Amish drove buggies and used horses to plow fields and dressed in "funny" clothes. Living in Ohio for the past 20 years I've learned about the differences between Amish in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. This book delves further into differences between groups (Ordnungs) and the struggle they have with staying "true" to their belief system or taking steps toward a less restrictive lifestyle and the consequences that have arisen.

[Marija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book about the Amish in Holmes County and the surrounding area. Learned a lot about the different groups of Amish who live there and how they feel about health care, why some of them send their children to public schools and why some home school. Lots of information.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative and interesting in a way, but it reads like the sociological study it is.

I appreciated the authors' largely neutral voice regarding Amish beliefs and values, as well as the way the final chapter suggests meaningful ways us "English" can learn from the Plain people.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good book- very interesting. I had no idea that there were so many differences among the Amish- re: belief systems, adoption of technologies, etc.