Quakers in Victoria

This book is in two parts: the first is an Introduction and a series of essays by Reynolds on John Woolman; the second consists of excerpts from Woolman’s writings.  It is, therefore, an excellent introduction to John Woolman if you are coming to him for the first time.           Reynolds sets the stage quite well,… Read more: The Wisdom of John Woolman by Reginald Reynolds (921 W00)

By Paul Kingsnorth (383.064 KIN)           Kingsnorth—novelist, poet, essayist—addresses what he calls the age of the Machine, where state power merges with tech power, potentially resulting in the unmaking of humanity.  Though we “have every gadget and recipe and website and storefront and exotic holiday in the world available to us, […] we are lacking… Read more: Against the Machine. On the Unmaking of Humanity

Religious Schism in Early Nineteenth Century America By Robert W. Doherty (289.6 DOH)             This book traces the sociological or societal, as well as the religious, issues, particularly in the Philadelphia area of 19th century America, that led to the so-called Hicksite Separation (named after Elias Hicks) of 1827.  Doherty points out that the early… Read more: The Hicksite Separation: A Sociological Analysis of

Selected with and Introduction by Kerry Walters (289.6 JON)           At his birth in Maine in 1863, Rufus Jones’s Aunt Peace said of him, “This child will one day bear the message of the Gospel to distant lands and to peoples across the sea.” And so, he did.  By the time he was four years… Read more: Rufus Jones. Essential Writings

If, as a librarian, I allow myself some time to muse about libraries, it is only fitting that I begin with reference to the great Library at Alexandria in Egypt, which is believed to have been instituted by Ptolemy II, pharaoh and basileus of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, sometime in the 3rd century BCE.  It formed… Read more: A Librarian Muses about Libraries