This semester-long reading project has officially come to an end, but I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve committed to a year-long reading/writing project on the American Puritans. I will continue to explore the themes in my last post and eventually find a narrower focus. So my next step is to decide what to read in the coming weeks. I have these books in mind, since it’s time to familiarize myself with the literature written about the Puritans:
- Michael Colacurcio, Godly Letters: the Literature of the American Puritans, for close readings of the first generation writings.
- Harry Stout's New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England. Parts I & II deal with sermons, 1620-1700.
- Susan Hardman Moore, Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the Call of Home. Moore addresses the motivations for migration, then shows the viewpoint of those who decided not to stay (people who left New England during the British Civil Wars and Interregnum, 1640–1660).
These books on literary criticism & cultural commentary will help with big themes, and I have a couple of other books that will address poetry. I can later narrow to articles about specific works.
I appreciate other reading suggestions, themes to explore, and general observations!
Hello Christine,
ReplyDeleteI really recommend reading the records of the General Court. I have them on CD, but I can't remember where I got them from; I'm sure it's findable online. Combine the GC records with John Winthrop's diary to see events recorded in each place. The GC records are an invaluable debunker of the ideas that the Puritans had no separation of church and state, that they were witch-hunters, that the MBC supported the Pequot War, and more.
Lori, thanks for suggesting the court records for historical background--pointing me to true primary sources! Looks like there are some GC records on library resources like JSTOR.
ReplyDeleteChristine, for primary sources, I would suggest William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, and Thomas Shepard's Parable of the Ten Virgins as works which have held their value continuously since when they were written, (even though Shepard is a pain to read). For secondary sources, in addition to the ones you have mentioned, I would suggest Allen Carden's Puritan Christianity in America: Religion and Life in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteI should have said "published" rather than "written" as both the books by Shepard and Bradford were not published until after the author's death. In Shepard's case, it was but a few years before his son had the book published, but it took about two centuries for all of Bradford's book to make it into print, although extracts had been published much earlier.
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