The Quakers in America (Columbia Contemporary American Religion) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

It is important to realize that The Quakers in America by Tom Hamm is part of a series on religions in America, and isn't about all Quakers everywhere. It can be easy for non-Quakers in the U.S. to assume that it is a predominantly American religion. However, this is not the case, and therefore to get a true understanding of who Quakers are, it would be more prudent to read something from outside this series. Therefore, considering the confines of the topic, Hamm commendably realizes the necessity of starting the history with the beginning, even though the founder of Quakerism, George Fox, was an British.

In fact, Hamm does a thorough job of exploring everything a person would want to know about American Quakers. He takes special care to explore the diversity of the sects and divisions among Quakers based on differing beliefs and practices. He explains these tendencies both currently and throughout American history. Also in American history, Hamm explores the various ways Quakers both were influential and were influenced. The Quakers were heavily involved in the history of Pennsylvania, in abolitionism, in women's movements, and several key figures in American history were Quakers, such as Alice Paul, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon.

Most of the book, however, focuses not on Quakers in the spotlight, but on the lives of more typical Quakers. In this way, Hamm invites the reader into the world of being Quaker in America. He has essentially created a guidebook for what one will find upon voyaging into the meetinghouses and listening to discussions of the internal politics or participating in the practices.

Essentially, what this book is perfect for is finding out more about the pacifist users of consensus who value silence, who may or may not be Christian, who believe that God speaks through everyone, and are your neighbors.

The Quakers in America, by Thomas Hamm, gives a detailed look at the current state of affairs of Quakers in the United States. The book gives a brief history of the Quaker tradition, then goes on to touch on a variety of topics relevant to Friends today, from the American Friends Service Committee to political tendencies to homosexuality, looking at the different viewpoints expressed by various groups of Friends. The focus is on the diversity of Quaker thought and tradition in America today, stressing the idea that Quakers cannot be lumped together under any single heading or even set of beliefs. The book is very representative of all different types of Friends and aspects of the Quaker tradition, but is too specific for someone who does not have a general understanding of Quakerism to benefit from.

The Quakers in America is too focused and does not provide enough background knowledge to be of much use to someone who does not already have a fundamental grasp of the Quaker tradition. The history of the religion is covered quickly, as are the basic tenets of Quakerism. The book gives only the briefest outline of the building blocks of Quakerism, and then launches in to a more analytical view of the different branches of Quakerism and how they differ. For a beginner who is looking for the general sense of the religion, the central ideas and what they mean, this book is very confusing. It goes into some detail on specific meetings and movements that don't have much meaning for someone who knows very little about Quakerism. For the more advanced reader, however, the specific information is sure to be interesting. The focus on not putting any single label on the entire group of Friends is helpful and provides a lot of food for thought on what the essence of the Quaker tradition is, what defines a Quaker, what beliefs are the most important to the religion, and what direction the religion is taking, as well as more pragmatic issues such as if and how to boost the population of Friends. A newcomer to the ideas of Quaker faith is going to want to look at it in a much broader and looser sense. The specific nature of the book makes it more attractive to those who have deeper background knowledge.

The range of topics covered in the book is both a blessing and a curse. It is good in that it provides a very comprehensive look at the religion, but also bad because on every topic there is so much difference of opinion that the overlying impression left after reading the book is more a sense of the divisiveness of the religion rather than specific knowledge about which branches of Quakers fall on which side of an issue. By covering so many different issues each one is given less attention and explained less thoroughly. Prominent issues such as leadership, identity, and sexuality are covered in only a few pages, which is not nearly enough to do them justice or even to completely explain why groups of Friends have different ideas on each issue. The result is that the reader is left with a jumbled sense of what he or she has just read, with the impression that it is so much diverse information condensed into such a small space that he or she has learned a little about a lot, but a lot about nothing. The good part about including so many topics is that it really drives home the idea that Quakers, in many ways more than other religions, cannot be simply defined and do not all agree on any single idea, even something as central to the tradition as the peace testimony. Reading about the differing viewpoints on each topic makes this idea very apparent.

The Quakers in America gives enough diversity of opinion on a wide range of issues to be interesting and informative for the slightly more advanced reader of Quaker texts, but is too focused on the more political side of the religion to be very useful for a beginner. Someone with no or very limited knowledge of what Quakerism means would come away from this book with a stronger impression of how divided Friends in America are, without getting a strong enough sense of the foundations and basics of the religion to really understand how or why these divisions came about and what they mean. For someone who is more grounded in the basic aspects of the faith, this focus on division, why it happens, what it means, and if and how to stop it, is much more interesting and really forces thought on these issues. Overall it is a well-researched, honest, and unbiased view of Quakers in America today that leaves the reader with much to think about, both about Quakerism and religion in general.

In his book, The Quakers in America, Thomas Hamm attempts to balance unity with diversity, a task as daunting in the writing of a book as in the actual practice of Quakerism. Hamm sets out to write a "scholarly work that trie[s] to describe and explain contemporary American Quakerism in its considerable diversity" (Hamm, vii). His challenge lay in expressing the incredible diversity of a group that is commonly collected and understood (at least from the outside) under a single term. Hamm approaches American Quakerism as a single "it" that can be both described and explained, but he constantly opposes the concept of a "typical" Friend. Hamm writes a detailed and sufficiently objective account of Quakerism in America, orchestrating a careful counterpoint between commonality and divergence in past and present manifestations of American Quakerism.

Although the book focuses on Quakerism as it is today, Hamm believes that any understanding of contemporary Friends necessitates an overview of the movement's history. He dedicates two chapters to the development of Quakerism, from its roots in England in the 1640's through its many divisions after 1800. His history devotes many pages to the Pennsylvania colony. Hamm's discussions of Quaker governmental roles in Pennsylvania provide a precedent for future examinations of the ways in which Friends deal with government and the peace testimony. The history also establishes the origins of certain characteristic practices such as quietism. Hamm examines the divisions that led to the diversity of Quaker groups now in existence.

The Quakers in America is a catalogue of Quaker beliefs, practices, and institutions. No group is missing from Hamm's exhaustively researched work. The chapter entitled "Quaker Faiths and Practices" focuses on the diversity of Quakerism. He details, among other beliefs and practices, worship style of both pastoral Friends and unprogrammed Friends. Following this chapter is a discussion of contemporary Quaker debates. Hamm treats the varying convictions held by contemporary Quakers about such controversial issues as sexuality and leadership. Hamm also examines the question: "how have some Quakers concluded that [Quakerism] is not necessarily Christian?" (Hamm, 122) Those Friends who argue that it is not comprise a relatively small portion of the whole, but Hamm, after the style of consensus seeking, grants them various pages.

Thomas Hamm's main arguments are compounded by the topics he chooses for his introductory chapter and his afterword. His book begins with a tour of four different congregations bearing few similarities to one another. He then asserts that they are all Quaker. He writes: "neat categories for these Friends are difficult to create, and labels can be confusing" (Hamm, 9). Hamm ends his book with a list of "important" Quakers. He writes that they "are not intended as a listing of the fifteen best known Quakers in American history...None can be considered a `typical American Friend.' As a group, they exemplify the diversity of American Quakerism, past and present" (Hamm, 203). Thus, Hamm may be attempting above all to portray Quakerism in a way that does justice to all its diversity, while maintaining a degree of unity and perhaps looking towards future reconciliation.

The strongest areas of The Quakers in America are, ironically, some of the weaker areas also. Hamm's emphasis on diversity provides an extremely wide base of understanding for the newcomer to Quakerism. It may also broaden the knowledge of those more familiar with only some groups of Friends. Hamm dispels stereotypes by showing the great and often unrecognized variety within Quakerism. However, Hamm's attention to diversity sometimes leaves the reader wondering if there is anything that can unite American Friends. Some paragraphs feel like a series of switchbacks and conceptual hairpin turns as Hamm is cautious of absolutes and careful to show how divergent Quaker ideologies compare to one another.

Hamm is a historian. As such, the book is filled to the brim with specifics: names, dates, and acronyms. Hamm has based his book upon an amazing degree of research. The wealth of information allows Hamm's book to be used as a reference if needed. The information feels very reliable, and Hamm is successfully objective. Readers who do not familiarize themselves with Hamm's background may have a hard time guessing his personal perspectives. Hamm's attention to detail requires a close reading, and the book may not give up all its treasures even after a couple readings.

While Hamm's book is quite readable for Quakers and non-Quakers alike, it does merit a fairly close reading, as it is replete with Quaker acronyms, Quaker terminology, names and dates. The Quakers in America provides an incredible amount of well-documented information; it is not a fast read. However, for those who desire to learn something of Quakerism, Hamm's book allows one to take from the reading what they will. The Quakers in America is an effective portrayal of the diversity within Quakerism.