William Penn: A Life
by Andrew R. Murphy (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
On March 4, 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn a charter for a new American colony. Pennsylvania was to be, in its founder's words, a bold "Holy Experiment" in religious freedom and toleration, a haven for those fleeing persecution in an increasingly intolerant England and across Europe. An activist, political theorist, and the proprietor of his own colony, Penn would become a household name in the New World, despite spending just four years on American soil.
Though Penn is an iconic figure in both American and British history, controversy swirled around him during his lifetime. In his early twenties, Penn became a Quaker -- an act of religious as well as political rebellion that put an end to his father's dream that young William would one day join the English elite. Yet Penn went on to a prominent public career as a Quaker spokesman, political agitator, and royal courtier. At the height of his influence, Penn was one of the best-known Dissenters in England and walked the halls of power as a close ally of King James II. At his lowest point, he found himself jailed on suspicion of treason, and later served time in debtor's prison.
Despite his importance, William Penn has remained an elusive character -- many people know his name, but few know much more than that. Andrew R. Murphy offers the first major biography of Penn in more than forty years, and the first to make full use of Penn's private papers. The result is a complex portrait of a man whose legacy we are still grappling with today. At a time when religious freedom is hotly debated in the United States and around the world, William Penn's Holy Experiment serves as both a beacon and a challenge.
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Editorial Reviews
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"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 achievementa 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
About the Author
Andrew R. Murphy is Professor of Political Science 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).
Product details
Publisher : Oxford University Press (November 8, 2018)
Language : English
Hardcover : 488 pages
ISBN-10 : 0190234245
ISBN-13 : 978-0190234249
Item Weight : 1.81 pounds
Dimensions : 9.4 x 1.5 x 6.5 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #229,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#295 in American Revolution Biographies (Books)
#327 in European History (Books)
#557 in Historical British Biographies
Customer Reviews: 4.3 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
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Biography
Andrew Murphy is Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. A native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, he received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written extensively on the theory and practice of religious liberty in England and America, from his first book, Conscience and Community: Revisiting Toleration and Religious Dissent in Early Modern England and America (2001), to his most recent: a biography of William Penn entitled William Penn: A Life (2018). He is the author of Liberty, Conscience, and Toleration: The Political Thought of William Penn (2016); and co-editor of The Worlds of William Penn (2019). A scholarly edition of William Penn's Political Writings is forthcoming in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought series.
Murphy’s research has also explored the interconnections between religion and American politics, most particularly in Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11 (2008) and (co-authored, with David S. Gutterman of Willamette University) Political Religion and Religious Politics: Navigating Identities in the United States (2015).
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MickM
VINE VOICE
4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed History
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2019
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Penn must have been a fascinating character. He converted to Quakerism at a young age in defiance of his father, became a leading Friends theologian, managed family estates in England, Ireland, and America, and lead a full family life. The founding and foundering of Pennsylvania was but a part of his occupations. I thought the explanations of the issues involved in the establishment and attempts to run, and profit from, Pennsylvania most interesting. Among conflicts with royalty, British bureaucrats, other colonies, creditors, and the Pennsylvania colonists themselves, it's a wonder he didn't just give up. His advocacy for the interests of fellow Friends is compelling and sincere, although the nuances are a bit lost on and dull to a 21st century reader, although that may be a personal preference. Lots of detail in less than 300 pp of text and far more than in most popular biographies. I wanted a book to get a good narrative of Penn and this book does a good job .
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5.0 out of 5 stars Early American History
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2019
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Mr. Murphy authored a balanced view of Williams Penn' life and goals. The book shows the realistic struggle early colonists faced with politics and religious conscience.
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