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Companion to the American Experience
Johns Hopkins University Press
April 2013
On Sale: April 3, 2013
500 pages ISBN: 1421409143 EAN: 9781421409146 Kindle: B00CBNL8EG Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
The Amish have always struggled with the modern world. Known
for their simple clothing, plain lifestyle, and
horse-and-buggy mode of transportation, Amish communities
continually face outside pressures to modify their cultural
patterns, social organization, and religious world view. An
intimate portrait of Amish life, The Amish explores
not only the emerging diversity and evolving identities
within this distinctive American ethnic community, but also
its transformation and geographic expansion. Donald B.
Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt spent
twenty-five years researching Amish history, religion, and
culture. Drawing on archival material, direct observations,
and oral history, the authors provide an authoritative and
sensitive understanding of Amish society. Amish
people do not evangelize, yet their numbers in North America
have grown from a small community of some 6,000 people in
the early 1900s to a thriving population of more than
275,000 today. The largest populations are found in Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and Indiana, with additional communities in
twenty-seven other states and Ontario. The authors
argue that the intensely private and insular Amish have
devised creative ways to negotiate with modernity that have
enabled them to thrive in America. The transformation of the
Amish in the American imagination from "backward bumpkins"
to media icons poses provocative questions. What does the
Amish story reveal about the American character, popular
culture, and mainstream values? Richly illustrated, The
Amish is the definitive portrayal of the Amish in
America in the twenty-first century.
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