Shachtman’s book is based on an extensive set of interviews with Amish teens and adults from a variety of areas; the interviews were originally collected for a documentary called The Devil’s Playground. The result is an affecting book that portrays Amish culture in a unique way.
This was perhaps one of the most enlightening books I’ve ever read, in two senses. The first is that it taught me a great deal about Amish culture. I’m probably not alone in that I knew very little about the Amish beyond what I saw in Witness. For example, I didn’t know that there are multiple sects of the Amish faith– each congregation can create its own ordnung, or set of rules, and different congregations have different rules about what kinds of interactions with the outside world are permitted, discouraged, or outright forbidden. (I also didn’t know that bishops are chosen by lot from the congregations, and that they serve for life– yikes!)
The second way this book enlightened me is to give me a further testimony of the importance of the family. Although Amish doctrine differs in many ways from LDS doctrines, one attitude shared by both is that moral standards aren’t prison bars that keep people in– they’re more akin to a picket fence that helps separate what should be an enclave of love from negative influences in the outside world.
Shachtman is careful not to describe rumspringa as a period when teens are encouraged to go out and do things that violate the tenets of their faith, although many of them do. However, overall the Amish church has a very high retention rate– north of 90% by most estimates. He includes interviews with a few people who’ve left the church; some are glad, and some are not. He also intersperses comments from scholars who study Amish culture, which provides a welcome third-party perspective. If this book has any flaw, it’s that writing an entire book based on interviews leads to a disconnected prose style composed mostly of pasted-together quotes. Once I got used to it, though, I was fascinated by what I learned. Highly recommended.
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