Amish Society

“Known by their peculiar garb and stubborn refusal to keep pace with the technological society surrounding them, the Old Order Amish form one of the most conspicuous folk groups in America. Prizing country ways and old customs, they drive buggies in preference to automobiles, avoid higher education, hold four-hour preaching services in their homes, and refuse to accept government subsidies. An absorbing account of a people who have said “no” to progress, Amish Society has now been extensively revised and augmented with a new chapter on Amish schools and education.

There have been other books about the Amish, but as Charles Loomis says in his Introduction: “For me this book tells THE Amish story.” It remains the most inclusive treatment of the American Amish in the perspective of sociology and social anthropology. Born into an Amish family and reared as an Amishman until, as a youth, he left the group to obtain an education, John Hostetler writes about the Amish with unique authority and understanding. He brings to his subject not only the investigator’s professional detachment, but also the deeper awareness engendered by his having been a member of the Amish community.

The first part of the book examines the structures and strengths of Amish social institutions. It deals with the origins of the group as a sectarian movement, the Amish charter as a symbol of community self-fulfillment, and family life and personal relations from infancy to childhood. Professor Hostetler then turns to a study of the internal conflicts produced by social change and innovations such as the tractor, the telephone, and the automobile. In addition there are discussions of defection, Meidung (excommunication), health and medical behavior, and mental illness.”