Sale!

A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England

Amazon.com Price:  $27.99 (as of 06/05/2019 08:44 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

A revelatory account of the aspirations and accomplishments of the individuals who founded the New England colonies, comparing the reforms they enacted with those attempted in England all over the period of the English Revolution.

Distinguished historian David D. Hall looks afresh at how the colonists set up churches, civil governments, and methods for distributing land. Bringing with them a deep fear of arbitrary, unlimited authority grounded in either church or state, these settlers based their churches at the participation of laypeople and insisted on “consent” as a premise of all civil governance. Encouraging broad participation and relying at the full of life use of petitioning, they also transformed civil and criminal law and the workings of courts. The outcome used to be a civil society far less authoritarian and hierarchical than used to be customary in their age—indeed, a society so advanced that a couple of dared to describe it as “democratical.” They were well ahead in their time in doing so.

As Puritans, the colonists also hoped to exemplify a social ethics of equity, peace, and the common good. In a case study of a single town, Hall follows a minister as he encourages the townspeople to live as much as these high standards in their politics. This can be a book that challenges us to discard long-standing stereotypes of the Puritans as temperamentally authoritarian and their leadership as despotic. Hall demonstrates exactly the opposite. Here, we watch the colonists as they insist on aligning institutions and social practice with equity and liberty.

A stunning re-evaluation of the earliest moments of New England’s history, revealing the colonists to be probably the greatest and daring reformers in their day.

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » United States » Colonial Period » A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England

Recent Products