Library Committee Book Review - William Penn: A Radical Conservative Quaker, by J. William Frost
Submitted by Václav Zheng
William Penn: A Radical Conservative Quaker is an exciting new book by the internationally renowned Quaker historian J. William Frost. Professor Emeritus at Swarthmore, Frost returns to our familiar William Penn (1644- 1718) after several decades of diligent scholarship on Quaker family life, pacifism, antislavery, and religious liberty in early Pennsylvania and beyond.
To be sure, this monograph is not the first, and probably not the last, biography of Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania. But what Frost presents and stresses is a portrait of Penn as a successful religious leader, especially in terms of his faith and his contributions to the Society of Friends around the late seventeenth century.
Beginning with Penn’s early life and conversion, alongside the evolution of English Quaker communities, the book digs into his leadership in defining Quaker unity and authority and his growing influence among the Friends through preaching. Frost particularly analyzes
Penn’s various sermons and his public advocacy for religious freedom and tolerance. The book ends by demystifying Penn’s legendary deeds and offers a nuanced assessment of his enigmatic character: Penn was both a radical and a conservative figure – radical for his reform initiatives and utopian pursuits and conservative as a royalist who also opposed schismatics within the Religious Society of Friends. Frost’s historicist remit, evident in his just and meticulous treatment of William Penn, provides an important lesson for our contemporary world marked by extremism.
Overall, the book is scholarly in nature yet highly accessible; it flows so well that the author insightfully guides the reader through his narrative. The appended “Additional Reading” is also helpful for those interested in further exploring early Quaker history.
This book is now available in the Stony Run Library! You may find it using the call number below. Please check it out by writing your name on the card in the book, and leaving the card in the basket on the desk in the back of the Library. Enjoy!
William Penn: A Radical Conservative Quaker, by J. William Frost. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2024. xx+237.pp. Cloth. 978-0-271-09777-0. Call number: 289.6.921 Pen