Amish Education: A Synthesis
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist
Studies
Anderson, Cory. 2015.
3(1):1-24.
Review Essay of Horse-and-Buggy Genius[Loewen], Pennsylvania Dutch [Louden], and The Amish [Nolt]
Rural Sociology
Anderson, Cory, and Joseph Donnermeyer. 2018.
83(2):470-77.
Research Points
- Horse-and-Buggy Genius and The Amish: A Concise Introduction lack clear research questions, conceptual frameworks, definitions of key terms, and description of methods. They present information as trivia without sufficient synthesis.
- Both books rely problematically on a simplistic dichotomy between the “modern” external world and the “nonmodern” Amish/Mennonites, using the latter to critique the former. But they fail to adequately define what “modernity” means.
- The presumed audience seems to be outsiders wanting to understand the Amish/Mennonites. But the perspectives of the Amish/Mennonites themselves get lost in uncharacteristically conscious moralizing about the problems of modern life.
- The implied functionalist theory is weak, seeking to explain away in-group social contradictions in favor on an unrealistically consistent picture of Amish/Mennonite life.
- Pennsylvania Dutch, though only addressing plain people toward the end, provides a nuanced interdisciplinary analysis of how language has changed over time among assimilating vs. adapting German immigrant groups.
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