Amish Confidential

by "Lebanon" Levi Stoltzfus, Ellis Henican

Overview

Go behind the beards in this daring insider’s look at the curious Amish subculture of Pennsylvania Dutch Country!

Is the “plain and simple” life really so plain and simple? How do the Amish live without cars? Electricity? NFL football? The truth is, they don’t. More than fifty million people have watched “Lebanon” Levi Stoltzfus in Discovery Channel’s hit show Amish Mafia, where he dispenses justice and keeps the peace among the seemingly quiet, insular Amish people of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Now, he reveals what it’s really like to be Amish. Not the buggies, bonnets, and beards image the tight-knit community has portrayed for hundreds of years to the relentless curiosity of outsiders. The real-deal, day-to-day life—the good and the bad—all the dirty little secrets you’re not supposed to know. From Wi-Fi “pleasure huts,” to prostitutes, to marijuana and cocaine, you’ll never look at the Amish the same.

It isn’t easy keeping your feet planted firmly in the 1800s when the rest of the world is centuries ahead. Not even for the most God-fearing among us. The Amish have their own unique way of doing everything, and the lengths they will go to indulge in modern conveniences—and hide their indiscretions—will shock you. What have you been dying to know? How about what really happens when someone is shunned? Or whether the Amish pay taxes? Do they ever try to “pass” as English (in other words, non-Amish)? How rampant is illicit sex in such a repressed society? Can individuals make themselves stand out despite the strict rules? Why would the Amish take such risks when the punishment is eternal damnation?

“Lebanon” Levi blows the top off the buggy with this scandalous insider’s exposé, proving that even the Amish don’t always practice what they preach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501110313
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

“Lebanon” Levi Stoltzfus is the star of Discovery Channel’s hit show Amish Mafia. He was raised Old Order Amish (the most traditional kind), speaking Pennsylvania Dutch in Pennsylvania’s rural Lancaster and Lebanon counties. The Ordnung, the Amish code of conduct, does not prevent him from speaking freely about the closed society because he was never baptized into the church.

Ellis Henican is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Public Enemy 1

Part I Beating My Path

1 Becoming Us 11

2 Hard Lessons 20

3 Learning English 31

4 Free at Last 41

5 Open Road 52

6 Courting Trouble 62

7 So Ordered 78

Part II Making Our Stand

8 Fairy Tale 89

9 Shun This! 97

10 Way Too Close 111

11 BUI 122

12 Coke Brothers 129

13 The Barber of Bergholz 144

14 Don't Clape Me, Bro! 155

15 Stitchin' with a B 168

16 Valentine's Day in Court 180

17 Schooled in Forgiveness 189

18 Girls Gone 198

19 Bad Breeding 207

20 That's Rich 221

21 Sunshine State of Mind 229

22 Exes 237

Part III Bringing it All Back Home

23 Catching Up 247

24 Kelly's Girl 254

25 Last Laugh 260

Acknowledgments 273

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating look at the lives of the reclusive American Amish.

New York Post