The World of William Penn

Quick!

In the time if William Penn, when Pennsylvania was founded....

What eight year old was the emporer of China?

What important changes was Peter the Great making in Russian?

Who was the scientist that was making the news?

Any idea what French explorers were discovering in North America?

I couldn't have answered any of these questions. My world history is shaky at best and I find it impossible to make connections of events around the globe.

Until reading The World of William Penn by Genevieve Foster.



If you want a complete history of William Penn's life, you'll have to find another book. Foster briefly tells Penn's life story but fits it into the life and history of the time. She circles the world telling the stories of the battles, scientific discoveries, and writings that occurred during the same period.

As a school teacher, Foster was appalled at the boring history written for children. Her efforts to find an alternative led her to write books in a format known as "horizontal history". While focusing on an important figure from history such as Penn, Washington, or Augustus Caesar, she wove a story of the other events and people who share the same time.

Foster does not write from a Christian perspective. In this book, the only thing I found that I would possibly edit was on Confucius. But that didn't detract from The World of William Penn being a worthwhile book to add to your world or PA history.