Quakers and the American family : British settlement in the Delaware Valley /

Levy's book is an ambitious attempt to change the understanding both of the history of the American family and the history of Quakerism. Levy argues that the founding generation of the Society of Friends created a religious system based on maintaining group norms by inculcating them in the rising generation through "holy conversation," culminating in marriage within the group and repetition of the cycle. Economic distress in northwestern Britain, however, systematically undermined this vision, so in the late 17th-century, many Friends emigrated to Pennsylvania. There, Levy argues, they created a society based on "acceptance of pluralism, disciplined privatism, child-centeredness, and wealth" that set the pattern for family relationships in the US. Levy's bold interpretation and argument will certainly generate debate and additional research. He shows convincingly the crucial interaction between social and religious factors in Quaker history, but many historians will undoubtedly question how influential 18th-century Pennsylvania Quakers were in determining the later course of American social and domestic development. Recommended for college and university libraries. -T.D. Hamm, Earlham College