The World of William Penn

About this curriculum

A look at world history as it unfolded in various events throughout William Penn’s lifetime. Recommended for grades 7–12. With her unique approach to “horizontal history,” Genevieve Foster explores the wide world of William Penn from the 1660s to the early 1700s—a world reaching across the courtyards of the Sun King in France to the Great Wall of China and beyond to Colonial America. Penn’s contemporaries included such colorful figures as Louis XIV, Peter the Great, Edmund Halley, Sir Issac Newton, Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal), and the great explorers Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle. His life also spans a fascinating age of world exploration and discovery. Penn’s Quaker beliefs undergirded his relationships with the Pennsylvanian native tribes and established the longest standing peace treaty between American Indians and European settlers. Wonderful maps and illustrations by the author complement the text. About the Author “Nothing is more critical, I believe, than that children growing up in these critical explosive days should be given an understanding of American history as a part of the history of the world…