Today we have three winners of Richard Stevick’s Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years, and a pair of excerpts from the book. First, the excerpts. Excerpt #1: Rumspringa This first text is from Chapter One, showing public and media misperceptions of Rumspringa. What happened to catapult Amish youth and their teenage years squarely in the public eye, both here and abroad? Seeds were undoubtedly planted…
Today we have Part 1 of an interview with Messiah College professor emeritus of psychology Richard Stevick on his Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years. Win 1 of 3 copies of Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years Ask Rich a question in the comments below, and you’ll automatically get a chance to win one of three copies of Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years. This…
Bonnet Strings: An Amish Woman’s Ties to Two Worlds is the new memoir by Saloma Miller Furlong. You might know Saloma from her blog, previous book Why I Left the Amish, or more recently, from the PBS film The Amish: Shunned. In today’s interview, Saloma discusses topics including Bonnet Strings, her former community, and The Amish: Shunned. Bonnet Strings 2-Book Giveaway Saloma and Herald Press are…
Two works of historical fiction based on the story of Jacob Hochstetler have hit bookshelves over the past month. The first, Jacob’s Choice by Ervin Stutzman, we heard about a few weeks ago. Today we have a Q & A with Bob Hostetler and J.M. Hochstetler, authors of Northkill. Northkill Giveaway Two copies of Northkill are available for Amish America readers to win. To enter, just leave…
Ervin R. Stutzman is the author of a just-released work of historical fiction called Jacob’s Choice, the first in a three-novel series called Return to Northkill. The book is based on the story of 18th-century Amish pioneer Jacob Hochstetler, whose example of non-resistance in the face of violence has inspired generations of his descendants. From the press release: Based on actual events, Jacob’s Choice, Book…
A new documentary film about the Amish is set to air next month on PBS, titled The Amish: Shunned. This has been described as a follow-up to 2012’s well-received The Amish. From the description: A poignant and penetrating look at what it means to be cut off from faith and family, The Amish: Shunned follows seven people who have chosen to leave their closed and…
Janneken Smucker, author of the newly-released Amish Quilts: Crafting an American Icon, answers your quilt questions today. Janneken is Assistant Professor of History at West Chester University, consulting curator for the International Quilt Study Center & Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and author of a number of publications on quilts and quilting. Johns Hopkins University Press is giving away a copy of Amish Quilts. If you submitted…
I say “next”, because it’s pretty much inevitable there will be more television and film on the Amish. What I’ve seen lately suggests as much. Over the past two weeks, I’ve been contacted on five separate occasions by people interested in presenting Amish on film (in a program or documentary). While I do hear from people wanting to film the Amish from time to time, on…
Do Amish ever live in town? Which musical instruments do Amish play? How old do you have to be to become a bishop? Do Amish ever accept government aid? When do Amish grow a beard? Do Amish ever drive cars? When and why do Amish make exceptions to the Ordnung? How are store-bought Amish quilts different from those in Amish homes? Do Amish ever adopt?…
Last week the Budget was covered in an article in the Wall Street Journal, not the first time the Ohio newspaper has received attention from conventional media. The Journal’s writer explores its folksy appeal, quoting publisher Keith Rathbun, who describes the paper as “like someone talking over the back fence to a neighbor.” Also mentioned in the WSJ piece is one competing publication, Die Botschaft,…