An Amish Paradox: Diversity and Change in the World's Largest Amish Community

Holmes County, Ohio, is home to the largest and most diverse Amish community in the world. Charles E. Hurst and David L. McConnell conducted seven years of fieldwork to understand the dynamism that drives social change and schism within the settlement. The authors contend that the Holmes Country 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,...