Here is my take on Phil Gulley's book -
http://billclen.blogspot.com/2010/04/if-church-were-christian-by-philip_5344.html
Phil is pastor of Fairfield Friends Meeting near Indianapolis: http://www.fairfieldfriends.org/

_Friends for 300 Years_, then. There's a newer version called _Friends for 350 Years_, same book plus someone else's update to slightly more recent times.

Best really short history to my mind was in _Living the Way: Quaker Spirituality and Community_ by Ursula Jane O'Shea, which is from Australia Yearly Meeting, gives a good overview but doesn't give much priority to US Friends' history.

Quaker ancestors, much of the time, were people who left their Meeting when they married a non Quaker. Originally the issue was that they would be being married by some clergyman, a violation of the doctrine that it was God who married a couple, that Friends should not fall into the ways of The World in resorting to a ceremony performed by clergy, but rather exchange vows and have their marriage recognized by their Meeting. If the proposed spouse were not also a Friend, this could well be inconvenient, and the Meeting would likely be reluctant to approve unless said spouse sincerely converted...

It might help if you gave us some examples of what other books you like, and what interests you about those genes...