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Amish Resources

Note: Thanks to Kip Cates for his interest in these resources and encouraging me to get them together. This is not meant to be a comprehensive bibliography but a list of materials that I have picked up mostly in my visits to Amish Country in Ohio since I was fortunate to have grown up just north of the largest gathering of Amish in the world.

Documentary Videos (DVD)

From E.I.V. (The following videos give rare glimpses of Amish life in many forms. The style is generally videos of Amish life with narration dubbed over later in the studio. Sometimes the editing and audio quality are sub-professional, but the narrator's voice is pleasant. No closed captions or subtitles available. Low cost, generally about 14.99 per DVD.)

Amish at Work (2005). 35 minutes. Wood from forest to furniture, blacksmithy and shoeing a horse, farming, sorghum making, quilting, milk.

Amish values and virtues: plain and simple 1997 (60 minutes)

An Amish barn raising - Volume 2 2001 (60 minutes)

Amish children (2001) 35 minutes. Sometimes narration not closely connected with images. It is not a bad method in general, but makes it difficult for non English speakers since the images do not support the text and visa versa. However, you don't need the language to experience some very intimate views of Amish children at work and play with friends and family in all the seasons.

A train ride through Amish country (1995) 60 minutes.

All the above videos available from: E.I.V. Book & Video Productions Akron, Ohio (330)867-4975 Jim Gattuso, Jr http://www.amishvideos.com/store/home.php

The Amish: how they survive (2005) 49 minutes, closed captions. (High quality, informant voices as well as narration. Asks and answers a basic question about how the Amish in Ohio do actually survive and flourish.

Books

Good, Merle & Good, Phyllis (1995). 20 Most asked questions about the Amish and Mennonites. Good Books: Intercourse, PA.

Hostetler, John A. (1993) Amish society (4th ed.). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kline, David (1997) "Scratching the woodchuck: nature on an Amish farm." University of Georgia Press: Athens, GA.

Kraybill, Donald B. (1998). The puzzles of Amish Life. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.

Kraybill, Donald B., Nolt, Stephen M. & Weaver-Zercher, David L. (2007) Amish grace: How forgiveness transcended tragedy. Jossey-Bass: City?. ''this is a book about the Nickel Mines tragedy which occurred in Pennsylvania in the fall of 2006 where a non-Amish person murdered and wounded several Amish girls at a one-room Amish school house. Very sensitively written study of the tragedy and the philosophy and theology of forgiveness.

Längin, Bernd G. (1994). Plain and Amish: an alternative to modern pessimism (J. Thiessen, Trans.). Scottdale, PA: Herald Press. A journalists experience of living and learning from Amish and Hutterite communities throughout the Americas.

Miller, Levi (2004). Our people: the Amish and Mennonites of Ohio. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press.

Nolt, Steven N. (2003) A History of the Amish. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.

Scott, Stephen and Pellman, Kenneth (1999) Living Without Electricity. Intercourse PA: Good Books.

Stoltzfus, Louise (1994). Amish women: lives and stories. Intercourse, PA: Good Books. (Written by a woman who was raised Amish and includes profiles of ten different Amish women.)

Shakers

Williams, Jean Kinney (1997). The Shakers. New York: Franklin Watts. (A part of The American Religious Experience series. Short, high school level English, and many interesting pictures covering history and the few remaining Shakers and their communities). OJC library 198 Wj

Sprigg, June (1998). Simple gifts: a memoir of a Shaker village. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Brethren

Fitzkee, Donald R. Moving Toward the Mainstream: 20th Century change among the Brethern of Eastern Pennsylvania. (1995). Good Books: Intercourse, PA.