John A. Hostetler (October 29, 1918 – August 8, 2001) was an American author, educator, and scholar of Amish and Hutterite societies.
He was sixteen when his essay "Some Effects of Alcohol and Tobacco" was published by the Mennonite youth paper The Words of Cheer.
Utilizing a religious exemption from active duty, Hostetler, as a conscientious objector, was assigned to Civilian Public Service in several locations.
In 1951, his wife and a daughter died in childbirth, the same year that Hostetler's Annotated Bibliography on the Amish won the University of Chicago's annual Folklore Prize.
He received his Ph.D. degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1953 for his dissertation The Sociology of Mennonite Evangelism, which was later published by Herald Press.
During a five-year stint at the Mennonite Publishing House, he served as book editor and also wrote a history of the press, God Uses Ink (1958).
Hostetler produced eight full-length books and six booklets for popular audiences including the best selling Amish Life.
The study was funded by the U.S. Office of Education and enlisted numerous consultants and fieldworkers, the latter headed by anthropologist Gertrude Huntington, who lived with some of her family as participating members of an Alberta colony during one summer.