Orthodoxy in Massachusetts 1630-1650

by Perry Miller

Peter Smith reprint (1965) of Harvard University Press, 1933. Former library book. Clothbund book fair+. No dust jacket. Orange cloth boards fair with faint signs of water damage to front lower left near spine, back with white mark near left edge; spine beginning to wear through near bottom of hinge; sewn binding sound; pages very good, unmarked. 313 pages text, 4 pages Bibliography, 4 pages Index; 8.25 X 5.5 X 1; 1 lb. 9 oz. shipping weight. The historiography of New England and Puritanism suffered from the dominant scholarship of James Truslow Adams (1878-1949) and the satirical writings of H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) whose critiques of the 17th century Puritans was largely influenced by their post-Enlightenment, 20th century scientism. These writers and a whole generation of scholars refused to attempt to understand the Puritans within their 17th century context, much less the foregoing 125 years of the Reformation. Author Miller attempts to redress this prejudicial historiography. Professor Miller (1905-1963) was a fine writer.

Genres: Church History, History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Perry Gilbert Eddy Miller was an intellectual historian and Harvard University professor. He was an authority on American Puritanism, and one of the founders of what came to be known as 'American Studies'. Alfred Kazin once referred to him as "the master of American intellectual history."

In his most famous book, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (1939), Miller adopted a cultural approach to illuminate the worldview of the Puritans, unlike previous historians who employed psychological and economic explanations of their beliefs and behavior.

At Harvard, he directed numerous PhD dissertations; among his most notable students were historians Bernard Bailyn and Edmund Morgan. Margaret Atwood dedicated her famous book The Handmaid's Tale to Perry Miller. He had been a mentor to her at Harvard.

His major works included:

• (1933) Orthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630-1650
• (1939) The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century
• (1949) Jonathan Edwards
• (1953) The New England Mind: From Colony to Province
• (1953) Roger Williams: His Contribution to the American Tradition
• (1956) Errand into the Wilderness
• (1956) The American Puritans [editor]
• (1957) The American Transcendentalists, their Prose and Poetry
• (1957) The Raven and the Whale: Poe, Melville and the New York Literary Scene
• (1958) Consciousness in Concord: The Text of Thoreau’s Hitherto “Lost Journal”
• (1961) The Legal Mind in America: from Independence to the Civil War
• (1965) The Life of the Mind in America: From the Revolution to the Civil War

Reviews

[Sistermagpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't really blame this book for being a little hard to follow as it traces the religious arguments in the mid 17th century when Puritans set out for New England. It's not a question of it being badly written, just that my mind would inevitably wander and then I'd have lost who was arguing and exactly what their position was.

But it was still amazing to think about just how important any difference in religious opinion could be at that time. Though there were also times when I couldn't help think of Princess Leia saying "The more you tighten your grip the more star systems (or Protestants) will slip through your fingers."

[Adam Gossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perry Miller rocks.

[Robert Giambo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perry Miller is considered one of the best America historians of early New England. This book written in the 1930's (and free at gutenberg.org) I believe made his reputation. Interesting but very scholar and therefore not for a general audience. My short description is the the early settlers of new england believed in religious freedom - so long as they decided what was or was not acceptable.