WITNESSES FOR CHANGE<i> edited by Elisabeth Potts Brown and Susan Mosher Stuard (Rutgers University Press: $32</i> , <i> cloth; $12</i> , <i> paper; 190 pp.)</i>

Quaker women have been at the forefront of many political groups since the founding of the Society of Friends in 17th-Century England. The strength of Quaker women stems from the women’s unusual position in the Society; from the beginning, women’s meetings contributed to the life of the religious community, which recognizes no leaders but requires each member to follow the dictates of conscience.

“Witnesses for Change” traces the history of political activism among Quaker women. It is unusual to find coherence in a group of papers delivered at a conference, but the editors of this volume succeed admirably. The essays consider successive historic periods, each is followed by a contemporary document. These documents are beautifully selected: a 1670 letter to the king and Parliament from prophet and missionary Elizabeth Hooton; excerpts from the spiritual diary of a frontier woman who rejoices in the presence of traveling minister Mary Kirby (the exhortation to keep spiritual journals and emphasis on education and literacy account in part for the rich documentation on Quaker women’s lives); an annual report of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in the 1930s.

One of the characteristics of Quaker communities is that in the absence of central leadership, each community is free--and indeed, obligated--to set its own agenda. Since this book covers so much ground, there is little discussion of individual communities or personal histories; many references tantalize the reader and encourage further research. Controversial Southern Quakers Sarah and Angelina Grimke, mentioned only once, argued for the emancipation of the slaves. The dilemmas confronting pacifist feminists are likewise treated briefly, and there must be so much to discover about Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, whose pacifist convictions were sorely tested over Woodrow Wilson’s Declaration of War in 1917. She wrote: “It would be a tragedy for the first woman ever in Congress to vote for war.”