In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

62QuakerHistory George Fox and the Quakers. By Cecil W. Sharman. London: Quaker Home Service and Richmond, Ind.: Friends United Press, 1991. Maps, illustrations, bibliography, and index. Paper, $14.95. This most recent addition to a long list of popular biographies of the founding organizer ofthe Society ofFriends is one ofthe best ofits genre— well written, concise, attractively done, basedprimarily onprinted sources. Its author, an English Friend who has published a collection ofhis subject's epistles, is also more careful than most to include background material to slip George Fox into the context ofhis time. To appeal to amodern audience of seekers, Sharman is at pains to find parallels between the 1 7th century and today: for examples, he compares Fox's leather clothes to the current penchant forjeans (61), and he hastens to remind apprehensive readers that contemporary English Friends do not now "preach Christ Jesus, the Light oflife and the way to God" (87-88). His goal ofbeing up-to-date does get the best ofhim twice, for in his only references to Rhys Jones, Quakerism's first dissident, he inexplicably renames him "Rice Davies" (66). Was he thinkingofBritain's 1960sProfumo scandalinvolvingMandy Rice-Davies? But Sharman's effort also demonstrates the curious inability of Fox biographers to look at the sources in fresh and different ways. Concerned with theology and Fox's relations with the famous and powerful, they have failed to see what even their printed sources tell. Two examples, one minor, one not, but both telling oversights, will have to suffice here: Sharman mentions all of Fox's talks with Oliver Cromwell, but he fails to note that in one (Nickalls,Journal, 275) the First Friend left a clue to his height, and he neglects to tease out the implications ofFox's postscipt in his 1 656 letter to Protector and Parliament (Penney, Journal, 1, 266) in which he virtually endorses any punishment meted out to James Nayler. Having sided with Fox against dissidents, they have not peered critically at their hero's personality and its role in precipitating crises. Thus Sharman simply shies from probing the three major depressions (1644, 1659, 1670) in his subject's life. This uncritical stance can be partially explained by Sherman's (and others') heavy reliance on printed sources, primarily the oft-edited Journal . Thus theperiod after the mid-1670s is skimmed over quickly and offers no analysis of the so-called Wilkinson-Story schism, the deepest of the early splits. Sherman knows that "Ranters" were mostly figments of conservative fears (65), but he still follows Fox to misread them as enemies of all that is decent and right (98). He avers that Fox "wanted nothing less than atotal transformation ofcustomarypolitical and social attitudes" (69), but the examples he cites arise from wholly personal decisions. So, like BookReviews63 otherbiographers, he suppresses any mention ofFox's 1659 pamphlet with fifty-nine suggestions for "regulating things" ranging form cutting the crosses out of the national flag to confiscating abbey, glebe lands, and "great houses" so "there might not be a beggar in England." There are some curious misstatements. Fox was not at Lichfield in 1 645 (53), nor did he work from the King James version ofthe Bible (55, 240). American readers will be amazed that Presbyterians controlled Massachusetts inthe 17th century, as Sharmanturns the Bay Colony overto themfive different times (49, 146, 187, 195, 199). Hence, despite the value of Sharman's book as a briefintroduction, its contributions to a deeper understanding ofFox are minimal. What is most unfortunate is its failure to break out ofthe customary mold and offer a fresh reading of the same old sources. For that we shall have to wait. University of Tennessee—ChattanoogaH. Larry Ingle ...

pdf

Share