William Penn: A Life

"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 achievement--a definitive biography that will last for many years to come." -- American Historical Review

"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