After the Fire: The Destruction of the Lancaster County Amish [Paperback]

Randy-Michael Testa (Author), Susie Riehl (Illustrator), John A. Hostetler (Contributor), Robert Coles (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1992

A moving first-person account of the struggle between the Old Order Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding society that threatens to drive them out. "An affecting mourning for the impending destruction of the Amish community. . . ."--Kirkus Reviews.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Testa describes his experiences living among the Amish, whom he sees as members of an endangered sect, and compares their way of life to that of mainstream Americans.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania has been home to the Old Order Amish for three centuries. This close community, held together by religious beliefs and a simple lifestyle, is now facing loss of its secure environment to the forces of change. Testa spent a summer in Lancaster County living, working, and praying with the Amish. In a moving narrative, he recounts the joy, laughter, and sadness he experienced with the Amish and describes their warmth and unique character. Testa observed how the Amish agonized over the impending loss of their farms to housing developments, shopping centers, gawking tourists, and the greed and insensitivity of developers and public officials. Becoming an advocate of the Amish, he fought with them in their council halls against the power of those who are destroying a way of life. There are lessons to be learned here about ethnic pride and community preservation. Recommended for most libraries.
- Irwin Weintraub, Rutgers Univ. Libs., Piscataway, N.J.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: UPNE; 1st edition (July 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874516471
• ISBN-13: 978-0874516470
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #793,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming story of one person's discovery of the Amish, August 22, 1998

By 

R. Fisher ([e-mail]) (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After the Fire: The Destruction of the Lancaster County Amish (Paperback)

The title of Randy-Michael Testa's "After the Fire: The Destruction of the Amish" misht lead one to believe that the book contains another dour prognosis of the unviability of the Amish way of life in the electronic global age. Instead, the book is a loving and spirited rallying call to the defense of the Amish way of life against the increasing encroachment of mainstream lifestyles and norms, often at the hands of local zoning boards or other governmental authorities.

This is a quirky though charming little book. Told with all the intensity of a love ballad, this is the story of how Mr. Testa, an Italian-American who never lets you forget that he's from Harvard, discovered and became intimate with an Amish extended family. Much of the book consists of stories from a summer of living and working on the farm of a certain Elam Stoltzfus family, without electricity or the convenience of a modern shower. This book is part anthropoligical tale of cultural discovery, part chronical of personal self-discovery and part political tract, with the latter weighing in heavily.

This book also portrays, in Mr. Testa's colorful and personal style, the tenor of Amish day-to-day life. Certain moments in particular capture the essence of Amish existence, and its differentness from the outside, in a precise and powerful way that I have never before seen in print--for instance, the story of a dinner meeting of the Pennsylvania governor's family with the Amish bishops and their wives, and Mr. Testa's closing parable of the "cracked-egg test". Those wanting a fulsome, more academic introduction to Amish life should start with the writings of Mr. Testa's mentor, John A. Hostetler, but Mr. Testa's account does a wonderful job at putting flesh and color on Mr. Hostetler's more scholarly discussion.

On another level--as a piece of political propoganda--Mr. Testa's book is unlikely to reach those who most need to hear his message. Mr. Testa's anti-development argument has two aspects. The first is rooted in an unabashedly nostalgic vision that this historic corner of Pennsylvania should continue to maintain the qualities that for 300 years have made it unique and special. This argument will not convince the ex-Amish and Mennonites who are behind much of the development that Mr. Testa decries, for they view Amish tradition as a yoke to be shaken off, as an impediment to their not-wholly-accomplished goal of integrating into the prosperity and sophistication of the modern world. The second aspect of Mr. Testa's argument is religious, for he seems to believe strongly in the religious virtue of the Amish way of life, and he seems to view the encroachment of modernization as the secularization and neutralization of a healthy set of religious values. Again, fellow Pennsylvanians, after three centuries of seeing Pennsylvania serve as a magnet for religious protestant splinter groups of every description, are unlikely to be moved by the religious overtones of Mr. Testa's appeal. Mr. Testa's political message may communicate better if rooted in the economics of the development issue--namely, since tourism is a hugely important Lancaster County industry, it should be maintained in a tasteful and controlled manner, and this will not be possible in the long run if the Amish are not permitted to maintain their traditional lifestyle without outside interference.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars After The Fire- A message for us all; a message for our time, November 18, 1998

By 

Hugh Silk ([e-mail]) (Worcester, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After the Fire: The Destruction of the Lancaster County Amish (Paperback)

Randy Testa has managed to capture what only James Agee could do in his masterpiece "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men". He has managed to draw us in to his account of living within the Lancaster Amish community by being very present to his surroundings during his journey - by being a keen social observer with a moral conscious. We begin to feel we are there along side him: making hay, eating shoe-fly pie, and of course being witness to the subtle and not so subtle destruction of Lancaster County.

Just as Agee did in his famous novel, Testa forces us to realize there is more going on than the over development of a community intended to be a Garden Spot. As the Amish are over run by the greed of the "English" around them, both "near and far", so too are our own communities - slowly, right under our eyes becoming a plethora of Wal-marts, strip malls, and townhouses. And what is our role in all of this? And where does the "destruction" end? Is it only the loss of land or is it a loss of our very foundations of collective decision making, lost because of the overwhelming power of self interest?

These are the questions that Randy Testa challenges us with as he examines one community but allows us to look at our own lives. Act locally before it's too late. His message echoes the words of Michael Stipe: "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine". As the farm land is gobbled up in Lancaster; as we descend on the path of moral bankruptcy - I feel fine.

Thank you Dr. Testa for your wisdom; for your creative writing; and for your vision - let us hope the right people read this book!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BEING BULLDOZED BY THE AMERICAN DREAM, October 12, 2003

By 

A. Calabrese "othernj" (NJ--United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After the Fire: The Destruction of the Lancaster County Amish (Paperback)

I first visited Lancaster County, PA about 25 years ago. Initially I was intrigued by the life of the Amish and amused by the hokiness of the local tourist business. As time went on, I visited less and less often. Now when I occasionally visit, I just get sad. The area is being overdeveloped with stores and tract housing. The local Amish who have not left the area, seem to have lost their soul. They live a kind of double life. Functioning in two worlds. The Amish half of their identity seems to have surrendered to the onslaught of commercial tourist success. Randy-Michael Testa has captured the essence of the destruction of the Amish way of life in Lancaster County, PA. In fact, due to his studies at Harvard, for a bit, he lived it. This book is must reading for anyone who wants to know how the Amish are coping or not coping at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the Amish and how housing and commercial over-development destroy the lives of rural people, Amish and non-Amish, who stand in its way.