John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding FatherOxford University Press, 2005 - 478 pages John Winthrop's effort to create a Puritan "City on a Hill" has had a lasting effect on American values, and many remember this phrase famously quoted by the late Ronald Reagan. However, most know very little about the first American to speak these words. In John Winthrop, Francis J. Bremer draws on over a decade of research in England, Ireland, and the United States to offer a superb biography of the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one rooted in a detailed understanding of his first forty years in England. Indeed, Bremer provides an extensive, path-breaking treatment of Winthrop's family background, youthful development, and English career. His dissatisfaction with the decline of the "godly kingdom of the Stour Valley" in which he had been raised led him on his errand to rebuild such a society in a New England. In America, Winthrop would use the skills he had developed in England as he struggled with challenges from Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, among others, and defended the colony from English interference. We also see the personal side of Winthrop--the doubts and concerns of the spiritual pilgrim, his everyday labors and pleasures, his feelings for family and friends. And Bremer also sheds much light on important historical moments in England and America, such as the Reformation and the rise of Puritanism, the rise of the middling class, the colonization movement, and colonial relations with Native Americans. Incorporating previously unexplored archival materials from both sides of the Atlantic, here is the definitive portrait of one of the giants of our history. John Winthrop recevied an honorable Mention, The Colonial Dames of America Book Award. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adam Winthrop Adam’s Anne Hutchinson Antinomian authority bishops Boston church Boxford Bremer called Cambridge charter College colonists colony colony’s commission Company congregation Council deputies Diarmaid MacCulloch diary early efforts election Elizabeth Emmanuel Downing England English Essex father freemen God’s governor Groton hath Henry History Humfry Ireland John Cotton John Endecott John Winthrop Jr John’s justice Keayne king king’s Knewstub land later Lavenham leaders letter lived London Lord magistrates manor Margaret Winthrop marriage Mary Massachusetts Historical Society meeting migration ministers Nathaniel Rich native Oxford parish Parliament peace Pequots petition Plymouth Prayer preached Protestant puritan recorded reform religious Reverend Richard Robert Roger Williams Salem Samuel Saybrook sermon settlement Shepard ship sought Stambridge Stour Valley Suffolk Thomas Dudley Thomas Hooker tion town University Press Vane Wheelwright wife William Pynchon Winthrop to John Winthrop to Margaret wrote