Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I've lived in Lancaster for a lifetime and have known dozens of Amish. It was particularly valuable to me that this study is of Holmes County as it detached me from my personal feelings and observations. I agree with a the other reviewer that the title and cover art are quite misleading, I passed the book by a couple of times before buying it but have discovered a really well done, objective sociological study of the ongoing adaptations to the surrounding culture.
I could go on forever about the food for thought this gives all of us who struggle to be in but not part of the world or even understand what that means. That is one aspect of the book. From an anthropological and sociological point of view, I don't think a one volume work could be better. Even I didn't know how unessential the horse has become in everyday life (here with the no-till agriculture you see less and less mules and horses in the fields, for instance).
Also, the most serious "issues" which divide the Amish like the shunning and the Rumspringa may not be apparent ot an outside observer (like me). You see with great clarity regarding these questions how useless words like "liberal" or "orthodox" are, especially when applied from within a tradition, but from outside, too. If you're interested in the Amish or great sociology, buy it.
Click Here to see more reviews about: An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community (Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies)
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. (2011)
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