The largest Amish settlements in the United States are in Holmes County, Ohio, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and LaGrange, Indiana. The most familiar Amish images come from settlements of Old Order Amish, who are far stricter and less likely to compromise with worldly culture around them. Amish society is not organized by written rules, but rather by a set of understood behavior guidelines passed down from one generation to next, called Ordnung. This varies between settlements and regulates dress, courting and marriage customs, gender roles, use of modern technology, and every other aspect of their lives. One of the strengths of Amish culture is their belief that all are equal in God's eyes and do all things for God's glory. Therefore areas where egotism and a display of vanity can easily develop are avoided. And so we see their plain dress, homes, simple transportation and strong work ethic.

The family unit is central to their community, where children welcomed joyously and considered a gift from the Lord and the elderly are cared for in a separate apartment built as an addition onto the family home for them to live independently yet in the midst of family. Their strong community is evidenced by barn raisings and co-operative insurance, where if an emergency arises, the members come together and financially provide for needs. Another amazing example is fathers providing for their sons' futures by buying farms for them or helping them buy farms or start cottage businesses; the youngest son usually inherits the family farm.

The Amish are first and foremost a religious community. Historically, their lineage begins with the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation initiated by Martin Luther in 1517. Soon after, diverse groups who called themselves the Anabaptists formed. The Anabaptists believed that infant baptism as practiced by the Catholic Church was insufficient for salvation; rather, a believer must commit their lives to God willingly as an adult and be baptized again into the faith. In 1536, a young Dutch Catholic priest named Menno Simons became part of the Anabaptist movement. He was a great writer and leader who brought the scattered Anabaptists fellowships together. These groups were labeled Mennonites for following Menno Simons' teachings.

The Mennonites later split over the topic of shunning, a form of church discipline intended to bring the offender to repentance. Under the leadership of Jacob Amman, who believed that shunning should apply to the entire sphere of relationship rather than just the communion table, a splinter group formed, now known as the Amish. During this entire period of history, every Reformation group was persecuted by the Catholic Church. The Mennonites and the Amish found safety in the fertile mountain valleys of land now located in Switzerland and southern Germany, meeting secretly in houses rather than formal church buildings. Their final move was initiated by William Penn, who invited all seeking religious freedom to join him in the Pennsylvania colony. These events shaped the way the Amish express their faith and created the close-knit farming communities we are familiar with today.

Another notable feature of Amish culture is their avoidance of modern technology. The Amish are very protective of their community and everything is judged based on its impact on the community and on the individual. Will it break up the community? Or for the individual, will it lead to pride or divide him from close relationship with family or community? Tractors, telephones, electric dairy equipment, electricity, cars, cell phones and computers have all fallen under close scrutiny. It is important for an outsider to understand that there is a wide variation among settlements over how much compromise is allowed.