Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities

Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies

by Steven M. Nolt, Thomas J. Meyers

Plain and simple. American popular culture has embraced a singular image of Amish culture that is immune to the complexities of the modern one-room school houses, horses and buggies, sound and simple morals, and unfaltering faith. But these stereotypes dangerously oversimplify a rich and diverse culture. In fact, contemporary Amish settlements represent a mosaic of practice and conviction. In the first book to describe the complexity of Amish cultural identity, Steven M. Nolt and Thomas J. Meyers explore the interaction of migration history, church discipline, and ethnicity in the community life of nineteen Amish settlements in Indiana. Their extensive field research reveals the factors that influence the distinct and differing Amish identities found in each settlement and how those factors relate to the broad spectrum of Amish settlements throughout North America. Nolt and Meyers find Amish children who attend public schools, Amish household heads who work at luxury mobile home factories, and Amish women who prefer a Wal-Mart shopping cart to a quilting frame. Challenging the plain and simple view of Amish identity, this study raises the intriguing question of how such a diverse people successfully share a common identity in the absence of uniformity.

Genres: Amish, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 22, 2007

About the author

Steven M. Nolt is Senior Scholar and Professor of History and Anabaptist Studies at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to read a book to better understand the Amish, and the selection at my local library was lacking, so I picked this one, and I wished I hadn't!

If I start a book, I HAVE to finish it, and this one read more like a text book or perhaps a dissertation. It was awful!

To be honest I skipped about 15 pages near the end that discussed individual settlements. It was too repetitive and seriously PAINFUL.

I do not recommend this book at all to anyone, ever.

I'm so glad to be done it!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to the diversity within the Amish religion/culture in the state of Indiana. The only reason I'm giving it four stars rather than five is that it could easily be twice as long (for me and other nerds); while this book provides a good overview, I would've liked more in-depth comparisons.

[D.l. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be an excellent study of the various Amish communities in Indiana. While some of the information appears to be repetitive, the subtle differences between the communities helped me to better understand some of the interactions I've had in different parts of my state.