AcknowledgmentsGuide to Notes and AbbreviationsPrologueChapter 1 - OriginsChapter 2 - A Young Man on the MoveChapter 3 - Cork and ConvincementChapter 4 - CelebrityChapter 5 - The Great OpinionistChapter 6 - American Affairs and Popish PlotsChapter 7 - Penn's WoodsChapter 8 - To America and Back AgainChapter 9 - Trouble on Both Sides of the AtlanticChapter 10 - Seclusion and SolitudeChapter 11 - A Return to Public LifeChapter 12 - Pirates, Penn, and the PennsylvaniansChapter 13 - Back in EnglandChapter 14 - William, Jr.Chapter 15 - "Prison" and AfterEpilogueBibliographyIndex
Andrew R. Murphy is Professor of Political Science and the Richard L. Morrill Distinguished University Chair in Ethics and Democratic Values at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Murphy is the author of Liberty, Conscience, and Toleration: The Political Thought of William Penn (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11 (Oxford University Press, 2009).
"Andrew Murphy's William Penn: A Life is a long overdue,
revisionary interpretation of this icon in America's pantheon.
Readers of all stripes will welcome this addition to their
bookshelf of Americana." -- Journal of Religion
"Excellent and highly readable...Andrew R. Murphy may well be the
world's greatest authority on William Penn.... This authoritative
biography thus represents the culmination of a long and deep
engagement with the life and ideas of William Penn and the broader
religious and political context in which he lived. It is a
tremendous achievementDLa definitive biography that will last for
many years to come." -- American Historical Review
REVIEW: Quaker Religious Thought. Quote loaded: 19/12/2019.
"Andrew Murphy begins by portraying William Penn neither as a
statue on a pedestal nor a cartoon on a cereal box but as an old
man in a debtors' prison. He then unfolds the tale of an admirably
complicated figure-a terrible businessman yet a brilliant colonial
promoter, a confidant of kings yet a member of a despised sect, a
man of deep spiritual conviction yet an fierce advocate of
religious liberty. William Penn: A Life is a remarkable
achievement."
-- Daniel K. Richter, author of Before the Revolution: America's
Ancient Pasts
"Of all the colonial founders, William Penn is the most important
and the least studied -- a complex, profound man consigned to
caricature in the public mind. In the first full biography in
almost half a century, Murphy has gone a long way to remedy this,
showing Penn as a towering figure in England and its colonies.
Eclipsing Penn's earlier biographers, Murphy mines a generation of
research on Penn and the Quakers to give us a broad-gauged, highly
readable
biography that balances Penn's personal tribulations and financial
difficulties with his brilliance as a defender of the Society of
Friends, a spokesman for political and religious freedom, and a
promoter of pacifism, inter-group comity, and representative
government." -- Gary B. Nash, author of The Unknown American
Revolution
"A lively, engaging study of William Penn, meeting the highest
standards of scholarship. Andrew Murphy expertly captures all sides
of Penn's complex life and personality, including his idealism, his
religious and political activism, his spendthrift and debt-ridden
ways, and his multifarious wielding of power which brought him
acclaim and opprobrium on both sides of the Atlantic. A magnificent
accomplishment." -- Stephen W. Angell, editor of
The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies
"Andrew Murphy's intricate and surprisingly personality-driven
biography of Pennsylvania's founding weirdo William Penn is similar
to many books on this year's list in that it's easily the new
definitive work on its subject. Murphy ranges over the whole width
of Penn's fascinating life in a confident and knowledgeable way no
other biographer has ever approached." -- Open Letter Review
"This is a highly informative, well thought out and heavily
researched biography that also closely explains the economics,
politics and religion of this period." -- Pennsylvania Literary
Journal
"For anyone desiring comprehensive knowledge of Penn's life, this
is the book to read." -- Library Journal
"Andrew Murphy's intricate and surprisingly personality-driven
biography of Pennsylvania's founding weirdo William Penn is similar
to many books on this year's list in that it's easily the new
definitive work on its subject. Murphy ranges over the whole width
of Penn's fascinating life in a confident and knowledgeable way no
other biographer has ever approached." - Open Letters Review
"Murphy gives us a meticulously researched account of the nuances
of Penn's dealings with the varied issues and groups he confronted
during his extraordinary life, providing an invaluable resource for
anyone with a serious interest in the history of Quakerism, the
development of governmental theory, or the vexed politics of Penn's
'holy experiment'." -- The Spectator
"An exhaustive, well?written, and thoughtful work. It's one of the
best books about a Quaker historical figure that I have read in a
while. Murphy has produced something rare: a thorough, scholarly
work devoid of jargon or agenda. Murphy does a masterful job of
putting Penn's complicated life into context." -- Friends
Journal
"In this deeply researched and richly detailed volume, Andrew R.
Murphy provides the fullest biographical study to date of
Pennsylvania founder and first proprietor William Penn. The result
is a book that brings us as close to revealing Penn on his terms as
we likely will ever get." -- Pennsylvania Heritage
"Andrew R. Murphy, one of the foremost scholars of Penn in recent
years, is certainly well placed to bring us this long-awaited new
study of the man and his life. William Penn: A Life will appeal to
a variety of readers. It delivers on expectations, adding a
well-documented and rounded historical account to the existing
literature, which will impress established scholars with its depth
and detail, whilst providing a complete impression of Penn's
nuanced and complex existence for those newer to the field or
seeking an informed introduction to his life." -- Journal of the
Friends Historical Society
"Murphy's well-written account confidently surveys the vast and
complex panorama that made up Penn's world. [A] first-rate
biography."-- Western Historical Quarterly
"Andrew R. Murphy's biography introduces Penn to a new generation
of readers and presents a more comprehensive account of the life of
this seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Quaker politician
and author." -- Journal of American History
There is much to applaud in Murphy's biography. His careful reading
of Penn's papers and attention to detail affords readers unique
insights into this complicated man and his legacy. -- Robynne
Rogers Healey, Journal of Church and State
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