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

by Charles E. Hurst, David L. McConnell

Overview

Winner, 2011 Dale Brown Book Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801893988
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2010
Series:	Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charles E. Hurst is emeritus professor of sociology at The College of Wooster and author of Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences and Living Theory: The Application of Classical Social Theory to Contemporary Life.

David L. McConnell is a professor of anthropology at the College of Wooster. He is a coauthor of An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community.

Table of Contents

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Discovering the Holmes County Amish
2. The Origins of Religious Diversity
3. Coping with Church Schism
4. Continuity and Change in Family Life
5. The Changing Landscape of Learning
6. Work Within and Outside Tradition
7. Health along the Life Cycle
8. Stepping Back and Looking Forward
Appendixes
A. Methodology
B. Ohio Amish Settlements, 2008
C. Holmes County Settlement Amish Church Schisms, 1900–2001
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard A. Stevick

This is one of the finest books on the Amish that I have ever read. Not only do the authors introduce us to the richness, nuances, and paradoxes of Amish life in Holmes County,Ohio, but they write with a clarity and grace too often absent in thought-provoking books. I will make it required reading for my Amish cultures courses.

— Richard A. Stevick, author of Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years

Karen Johnson-Weiner

A fascinating book! This work offers a long-overdue exploration of the Holmes County area Amish community and clearly demonstrates how diverse Amish life is. As McConnell and Hurst show, while the Amish thrive, they don't all do so in the same way and may be as different from each other as they are from us. Well-written and engaging, An Amish Paradox offers much, both to the average reader and to the Amish expert.

— Karen Johnson-Weiner, author of Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools

From the Publisher

An Amish Paradox is a fascinating and thorough study of the world’s largest Amish settlement, with all its diversity and dynamism. Hurst and McConnell offer keen observations on education, occupation, and health care, as well as insight into inter-Amish relationships and the place of those who leave the community.
—Steven M. Nolt, coauthor of Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities

A fascinating book! This work offers a long-overdue exploration of the Holmes County area Amish community and clearly demonstrates how diverse Amish life is. As McConnell and Hurst show, while the Amish thrive, they don't all do so in the same way and may be as different from each other as they are from us. Well-written and engaging, An Amish Paradox offers much, both to the average reader and to the Amish expert.
—Karen Johnson-Weiner, author of Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools

This is one of the finest books on the Amish that I have ever read. Not only do the authors introduce us to the richness, nuances, and paradoxes of Amish life in Holmes County,Ohio, but they write with a clarity and grace too often absent in thought-provoking books. I will make it required reading for my Amish cultures courses.
—Richard A. Stevick, author of Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years

Steven M. Nolt

An Amish Paradox is a fascinating and thorough study of the world’s largest Amish settlement, with all its diversity and dynamism. Hurst and McConnell offer keen observations on education, occupation, and health care, as well as insight into inter-Amish relationships and the place of those who leave the community.

— Steven M. Nolt, coauthor of Plain Diversity: Amish Cultures and Identities

Editorial Reviews

Hurst and McConnell, obviously sympathetic to the Amish they study, are to be commended for their extensive research and their careful attention to nuance and exception.

American Journal of Sociology - Robert Brenneman

An Amish Paradox is a richly detailed and highly readable account of one settlement of Amish, perhaps the most visible ethnic religious minority in the United States. It is well-researched and free of jargon . . . [A] good choice for an advanced course in anthropology or sociology on religion, ethnicity, community, identity, or social change.

Anthropological Quarterly - Jonathan G. Andelson

There is no doubt that Charles Hurst and David McConnell's book about the Amish in the greater Holmes County settlement of northeast Ohio is an invaluable contribution to the literature.

Mennonite Quarterly Review - Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Cory Anderson

Hurst and McConnell's thorough, readable analysis of the world's largest Amish settlement is fascinating from a variety of perspectives . . . Highly recommended.

Choice

A number of excellent books have been written about the Amish in recent years and An Amish Paradox joins the ranks of the best of them. Sociologist Charles Hurst and Anthropologist David McConnell not only bring an interdisciplinary expertise to their study, but also an intimate knowledge of the Amish in Ohio’s Holmes County Settlement area, as well as a sense of adventure, as they lead theirreaders on a journey through various domains of Amish life. Their presentation is knowledgeable, measured, and thoughtful and their clear and straightforward style of writing takes one through many facets of Amish life in Ohio at a horse and buggy pace—fast enough to cover the territory and maintain one’s interest, but slowly enough to point out the changing scenery en route and to really giveone a sense of the complex nuances that make up everyday Amish life.

Journal of Contemporary Religion

A study whose exhaustive research and careful analysis is a significant milestone in making diverse Amish communities relevant to a variety of scholars, including those focused on religion.

Journal of Religion - M.J. Heisey

A number of excellent books have been written about the Amish in recent years and An Amish Paradox joins the ranks of the best of them. A wonderful book.

Journal of Contemporary Religion - Elizabeth C. Cooksey

A study whose exhaustive research and careful analysis is a significant milestone in making diverse Amish communities relevant to a variety of scholars, including those focused on religion.

— M.J. Heisey

Journal of Religion

There is no doubt that Charles Hurst and David McConnell's book about the Amish in the greater Holmes County settlement of northeast Ohio is an invaluable contribution to the literature.

— Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Cory Anderson

Mennonite Quarterly Review

An Amish Paradox is a richly detailed and highly readable account of one settlement of Amish, perhaps the most visible ethnic religious minority in the United States. It is well-researched and free of jargon... [A] good choice for an advanced course in anthropology or sociology on religion, ethnicity, community, identity, or social change.

— Jonathan G. Andelson

Anthropological Quarterly

Hurst and McConnell, obviously sympathetic to the Amish they study, are to be commended for their extensive research and their careful attention to nuance and exception.

— Robert Brenneman

American Journal of Sociology

Hurst and McConnell's thorough, readable analysis of the world's largest Amish settlement is fascinating from a variety of perspectives . . . Highly recommended.
—Choice

Hurst and McConnell, obviously sympathetic to the Amish they study, are to be commended for their extensive research and their careful attention to nuance and exception.
—Robert Brenneman, American Journal of Sociology

A number of excellent books have been written about the Amish in recent years and An Amish Paradox joins the ranks of the best of them. A wonderful book.
—Elizabeth C. Cooksey, Journal of Contemporary Religion

A number of excellent books have been written about the Amish in recent years and An Amish Paradox joins the ranks of the best of them. Sociologist Charles Hurst and Anthropologist David McConnell not only bring an interdisciplinary expertise to their study, but also an intimate knowledge of the Amish in Ohio’s Holmes County Settlement area, as well as a sense of adventure, as they lead theirreaders on a journey through various domains of Amish life. Their presentation is knowledgeable, measured, and thoughtful and their clear and straightforward style of writing takes one through many facets of Amish life in Ohio at a horse and buggy pace—fast enough to cover the territory and maintain one’s interest, but slowly enough to point out the changing scenery en route and to really giveone a sense of the complex nuances that make up everyday Amish life.
—Journal of Contemporary Religion

An Amish Paradox is a richly detailed and highly readable account of one settlement of Amish, perhaps the most visible ethnic religious minority in the United States. It is well-researched and free of jargon . . . [A] good choice for an advanced course in anthropology or sociology on religion, ethnicity, community, identity, or social change.
—Jonathan G. Andelson, Anthropological Quarterly

There is no doubt that Charles Hurst and David McConnell's book about the Amish in the greater Holmes County settlement of northeast Ohio is an invaluable contribution to the literature.
—Joseph F. Donnermeyer and Cory Anderson, Mennonite Quarterly Review

A study whose exhaustive research and careful analysis is a significant milestone in making diverse Amish communities relevant to a variety of scholars, including those focused on religion.
—M.J. Heisey, Journal of Religion

From the Publisher