World of Trouble: A Philadelphia Quaker Family's Journey through the American Revolution

by Richard Godbeer

An intimate account of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of a Quaker pacifist couple living in Philadelphia
 
Historian Richard Godbeer presents a richly layered and intimate account of the American Revolution as experienced by a Philadelphia Quaker couple, Elizabeth Drinker and the merchant Henry Drinker, who barely survived the unique perils that Quakers faced during that conflict. Spanning a half†‘century before, during, and after the war, this gripping narrative illuminates the Revolution’s darker side as patriots vilified, threatened, and in some cases killed pacifist Quakers as alleged enemies of the revolutionary cause. Amid chaos and danger, the Drinkers tried as best they could to keep their family and faith intact.
 
Through one couple’s story, Godbeer opens a window on a uniquely turbulent period of American history, uncovers the domestic, social, and religious lives of Quakers in the late eighteenth century, and situates their experience in the context of transatlantic culture and trade. A master storyteller takes his readers on a moving journey they will never forget.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, American Revolution

650 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 26, 2019

About the author

Richard Godbeer received his B.A. from Oxford University in 1984 and his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1989. He specializes in colonial and revolutionary America, with an emphasis on religious culture, gender studies, and the history of sexuality. Godbeer was born in Essex, England, and grew up in Shropshire and Gloucestershire. He then lived in Oxford for three years as an undergraduate before crossing the Atlantic to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1984. He moved to southern California in 1989, where he taught for fifteen years at the University of California, Riverside. He moved to southern Florida in the summer of 2004 to join the Department of History at the University of Miami. He offers courses on a broad range of topics, including sex and gender in early America, witchcraft in colonial New England, religious culture in early America, and the American Revolution.

Godbeer is author of The Devil’s Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England (published in 1992 by Cambridge University Press and winner of the American Historical Association Pacific Coast Branch Award for the Best First Book), Sexual Revolution in Early America (published in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University Press and a featured selection of the History Book Club), Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692 (published in 2004 by Oxford University Press), The Overflowing of Friendship: Love Between Men and the Creation of the American Republic (published in 2009 by Johns Hopkins University Press) and The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents (published in 2011 as a volume in the Bedford Series in History and Culture). Godbeer is currently working on a joint biography of Elizabeth and Henry Drinker, a Quaker couple who lived in Philadelphia during the second half of the eighteenth century. He is grateful to have received research fellowships from a range of institutions, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

Reviews

[Jan]

Who knew? This book is an assimilation of nearly fifty years of diaries and correspondence by a Quaker couple in Philadelphia from before the beginning of hostilities until 1807. They came from money and continued in that mien although he endured imprisonment for perceived treason due to his refusal to join into combat because of his faith. This is a social history of the time as well as the personal highs and lows in a time of armed conflict on home soil. The book is exceptionally well done with the seamless insertion of known facts within the timeline as well as focusing the multitude of documents into a reasonably sized tome while not sounding like a bland doctoral thesis. I really enjoyed it!
Charles Henderson Norman gives a nice, dispassionate rendering in narrating this very long book!
Disclaimer: our family spent a number of years with The Northwest Territory Alliance re-enacting the American Revolutionary War and also admired General Nathanael Greene, a Quaker.
I won this remarkable audio in a giveaway!

[Mary Higgins]

This book tells the story of Elizabeth and Henry Drinker, prominent Quakers of Philadelphia who live through the American Revolution and its aftermath. I liked the fact that Elizabeth had a real presence in this book; in fact, much of the book is based on her diaries, and she was quite a good writer. I sometimes questioned Godbeer's interpretation of excerpts from Elizabeth's diaries, but was glad to read them. The first two chapters of the book, which deal with the Drinkers' courtship and early marriage, are sometimes slow going, but the subsequence chapters, which address their experiences during the Revolution and after, are very interesting.

[Kristin]

Sarah Crabtree described this book on its jacket as "meticulously researched, beautifully written, and a true pleasure to read," and that just about sums it up. This is just excellent. I think I expected this book to be drier, but it was engaging, rich, and artfully paced and crafted throughout. Godbeer really brings the reader on a journey with this family during very trying times and I found myself amazed at how relatable their thoughts, feelings, triumphs, and troubles were, even 200+ years later.

It was also wonderfully, thankfully, deliciously free of ideology, agendas, and needless 21st century politicking. Godbeer addresses this in his introduction, when he says he tried his best to present the Drinkers "sympathetically without lionizing them and critically without demonizing them" and later to depict the Drinkers as "authentically as possible, never expecting them to satisfy modern ideals any more than we would satisfy theirs." He achieves both goals with total precision and I wish all historians and biographers would emulate this example.

Highly recommended.

[Laura]

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and any opinions expressed herein are my own.

This is a fascinating account of a Quaker couple, Henry and Elizabeth Drinker, who lived through the Revolutionary War and covers their lives from the period just prior to their marriage to their deaths. While the book covers the Revolutionary War, it provides insight to so much more. As the Drinkers came from money, there are discussions related to servants, to slavery, to women, to housing, to children, etc. While some of the Drinker's concerns about their family are still relatable today and other opinions are certainly not. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating and well-researched look into the lives and concerns of people who lived through the founding of the United States.

The narrator, Charles Henderson Norman, did a good job - his narration was clear and pace was good.

[Stephanie]

I didn't realize until after reading this book that it is part of a series, which I then find I need to investigate. Quakers have a reputation for seeking peace, setting themselves apart a bit from society, and living simply, similar to some other groups of people in the United States. The author details how this actually put them in the center of suspicion during the American Revolution. By revealing the major life events of one family, Mr. Godbeer brings to light events that happened to many in the North American colonies. The author uses many quotes from letters and diaries by the family, making the reader feel as if sitting in the same room with them. I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to anyone whose interest in history is its importance to humans.

[Kate Hornstein]

For research. Excellent

[Meg G]

See my review: https://networks.h-net.org/node/3911/...