What's a good book about the Puritans?

October 26, 2016 7:24 PM

I'd like to read a book about the Puritans, in particular John Winthrop. Any suggestions? Ideally the book would've been written in the past few decades.
posted by The corpse in the library to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

Best answer: Good entertaining or good academic? Sarah Vowell's 2009 book The Wordy Shipmates is great; it's a pop history romp through the Puritan era with musings about their cultural and political legacy. She specifically mentions Winthrop several times. I don't know if you've encountered her style but it was described in an interview as "part travel writing, part history lesson, part satire" and I think that's fair.

If you want something more academic maybe Jill Lepore's 1998 book The Name of War though I don't think it involves Winthrop too much, being focused on a slightly later period.

Haven't read this one but on Winthrop specifically there's Francis Bremer (2003) John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founder.
posted by Wretch729 at 8:26 PM on October 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: More entertaining than academic, but historically sound.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:28 PM on October 26, 2016

Seconding The Wordy Shipmates. I "heard" Sarah Vowell's voice as I read it, which made it that much more entertaining for me. YMMV.
posted by she's not there at 12:21 AM on October 27, 2016

Best answer: Edmund S. Morgan's book, The Puritan Dilemma.

It's a biography of John Winthrop and Morgan has a very engaging style. He was also a preeminent historian whose books are still assigned to graduate and undergraduate history classes all over the U.S., so you can trust that his history is sound--that he's using good sources and not making any crazy leaps in logic, etc.
posted by colfax at 3:13 AM on October 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

The Wikipedia entry for Winthrop draws from Bremer extensively and is a damn good overview! And maybe read some of Winthrop's own writing: http://winthropsociety.com/doc_charity.php
posted by at at 8:40 AM on October 27, 2016