Stephen Cary's life and thought reveal the leadership and philosophy that mirror the Quaker experience in the latter half of the twentieth century. Disposed to help the powerless, Friends moved from an orientation of relief work to exploring the conditions that give rise to peace and justice. This book documents important history of Haverford College and the American Friends Service Committee and reveals the humor and philosophy of a leader in the Society of Friends. A groundbreaking book on Quaker history in education and peace witness.

Open to New Light is not only for readers interested in exploring Quaker history and principles but also for anyone interested in different faiths and the relationships between them. The topics covered include Quakers' historic interfaith encounters, as well as more recent engagements with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Jains, Sikhs, Baha'is, followers of Indigenous religions and Humanists.

William Wentworth, Puritan Preacher, is an examination of the life and times of a lay preacher of the 17th century from Dover, New Hampshire. Baptized in England in 1616, William followed his kinsmen, John Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson, to Boston. Banished following the Antinomian Controversy, he settled first in Exeter, then Wells, Maine, and finally in Dover where he preached for 40 years while holding numerous public offices. A mill owner and farmer, he acquired extensive land-holdings, which he passed to his many sons. His descendants number in the thousands today. William Wentworth's life neatly brackets the Puritan experiment in America from the turbulent 1630's to the late 1690's. His social, religious, political and economic life is illuminated using primary documents and current historical research.

When Americans today think of the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers, they may picture the smiling figure on boxes of oatmeal. But since their arrival in the American colonies in the 1650s, Quakers’ spiritual values and social habits have set them apart from other Americans. And their example—whether real or imagined—has served as a religious conscience for an expanding nation. Portrayals of Quakers—from dangerous and anarchic figures in seventeenth-century theological debates to moral exemplars in twentieth-century theater and film (Grace Kelly in High Noon, for example)—reflected attempts by writers, speechmakers, and dramatists to grapple with the troubling social issues of the day. As foils to more widely held religious, political, and moral values, members of the Society of Friends became touchstones in national discussions about pacifism, abolition, gender equality, consumer culture, and modernity. Spanning four centuries, Imaginary Friends takes readers through the shifting representations of Quaker life in a wide range of literary and visual genres, from theological debates, missionary work records, political theory, and biography to fiction, poetry, theater, and film. It illustrates the ways that, during the long history of Quakerism in the United States, these “imaginary” Friends have offered a radical model of morality, piety, and anti-modernity against which the evolving culture has measured itself. Winner, CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book Award

Between the years 1917 and 1927, the American Friends Service Committee of Philadelphia worked with agencies of seven governments to bring help to civilian victims of the first world war. This small private committee held fast to its original conviction that relief out to be administered to sufferers of famine and plague—not from political motivations but because such help was right, humane, and necessary. John Forbes's study The Quaker Star Under Seven Flags traces, through the war and its aftermath, the committee's negotiations with the governments of the United States, France, Serbia, Austria, German, Poland, and Soviet Russia. Forbes describes the field programs that were undertaken in cooperation with these governments after agreement was reached and carried out in collaboration with the great public enterprises that were also pioneering in overseas relief The book relates how the members of the Religious Society of Friends upheld the Society's commitment for peace not only by refusing to bear arms but also by working with the State and War Departments of the United States, as well as with the American Red Cross and the American Relief Administration. Joined by the British Friends War Victims Relief Committee, and in conjunction with officials of the stricken lands, they carried food, clothing, medicine, and hope across the English Channel into the heart of continental Europe, as far east as revolutionary Russia. A stirring account of the contribution toward peace of a selfless and courageous group, The Quaker Start Under Seven Flags illuminates some of the modern world's disturbing and puzzling foreign-aid problems. It indicates that it is not only the quantity of aid and the efficiency of its administration that counts but also the spirit in which it is given.