The Amish: A Concise Introduction by Steven M. Nolt (review)

The Amish have a variegated and complex relationship with other Americans. They are the central attractions for a large tourist industry, subjects of numerous “reality” television shows, targets of comedy routines, central characters in a genre of romance novels, and foils in some American films. They often are briefly discussed in introductory textbooks in sociology, anthropology, and history. They are familiar but misunderstood by most Americans, including many scholars. In fact, their lives are diverse and changing and they have complex but important relationships with the larger society that so often misunderstands them. Steven Nolt, who has done extensive research among the Amish, offers a highly readable, insightful, and short introduction to the Amish, their way of life, core values, and interactions with the larger society. Somehow, Nolt manages to do this in 118 pages (with another 26 pages of notes, appendices, and bibliography).

Written for a general audience, the book provides a broad overview. Nolt examines the history of the Amish and how they branched off from the Mennonites in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, consolidated and redefined themselves in the nineteenth century, and continued to both adapt to the surrounding society and maintain themselves into the present. He explains the primary importance of family, close communal ties, and the Ordnung, the rules of daily life that define the behaviors that the Amish must observe. He follows the life cycle from birth, through youth, the well-known and often misunderstood Rumspringa, vows of adult baptism, marriage, parenting, old age, and death. He explains the development of their independent schools and the changing patterns of work as many Amish leave the farms to work in various trades and small businesses. Finally, he examines the relationships between the Amish and the broader society they live in, including the distorted images that other Americans often hold of them. Throughout, Nolt explains how the Amish preserve their commitments to family, close community, and religion as they interact with the world around them. Nolt often describes these commitments as grounded in an effort to reject our broader society’s emphases on individualism, self-fulfillment, consumerism, segmented relationships, and large, specialized institutions.

The discussion is enlivened by illustrations from the daily lives of specific Amish individuals. The book begins by discussing an announcement in an Amish newspaper about using a GPS to find the location of a meeting (for those not riding in horse-and-buggies, they need to tell their hired drivers) (1). Giving a feel for their diversity and problems, Nolt describes the Amish husband who is insensitive to the needs of his wife and is encouraged by the bishop to practice more humility and Gelassenheit (“yielding to others”) rather than only thinking of his own needs (72). In their participation in the surrounding society, we find that some teens use Facebook (61) and another group runs in marathons (59). There is a discussion of a family’s interactional dynamics while playing Pictionary (67). Nolt presents an important tenant of Amish thinking by quoting an Amish writer who describes his appreciation of “the natural order of daylight and dark, sunshine and rain, the swing of the seasons, and the blessings with which God has ordered our world” contrasted with “the largely artificial environment of urban centers where night is well-lit, rain is a way to ruin a day, and food and fiber originate at the local store” (81). The complex interplay with mainstream society is discussed by an Amish bishop who writes that the outside fascination with them makes the Amish “more responsible than ever for the way we live” (115).

There are some big challenges to writing about the Amish: like everyone else in American society, the Amish are constantly changing and they are not all the same. Because of large families, they are a rapidly increasing population, and they are moving to new locations around the country. They are leaving farms to work for wages and...