| Francis J. Bremer, Ph.D., is chair of the Department of History at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Millersville, PA, and editor of the Winthrop Papers for the Massachusetts Historical Society. His published works include numerous studies of Puritanism, including The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards, Congregational Communion: Clerical Friendship in the Anglo-American Puritan Community, 1610–1692, and, most recently, John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father.
Books:
The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards (1976)
Puritan New England: Essays on Religion, Society and Culture co-editor with Alden T. Vaughan ( 1977)
Anne Hutchinson: Troubler of the Puritan Zion, editor (1980)
Puritan Crisis: New England and the English Civil Wars, 1630-1670 (1989)
Research Guide to Pennsylvania History, co-ed with D. Downey (1993)
Puritanism: TransAtlantic Perspectives on a 17th Century Anglo-American Faith, editor (1993)
Shaping New Englands: Puritan Clergymen in 17th Century England and New England ( 1994)
Congregationalist Communion: Clerical Friendship in the Anglo-American Puritan Community, 1610-1690 (1994)
The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards, revised edition (1995)
John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father (2003) – winner, 2003 Book Citation from Colonial Dames of America; winner, 2005 John C. Pollock Award for Christian Biography
Winthrop Papers: Religious Writings (web edition, 2006)
The World of John Winthrop: England and New England, 1588-1649, co-editor with Lynn A. Botelho (2005)
Puritans and Puritanism in the Atlantic World, co-editor with Tom Webster (2006) – named Choice Outstanding Academic Book 2006
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JOHN WINTHROP
From Publishers Weekly
Today John Winthrop (1588-1649) is
perhaps best remembered for the famous sermon in which he likened the
Massachusetts Bay Colony to a "city upon a hill," a model to the world
of social and religious order. Bremer, editor of the Winthrop papers
for the Massachusetts Historical Society, draws on those papers to add
tremendously to our understanding of this pivotal figure, eloquently
reminding us in a rich, magisterial biography how much Winthrop
contributed to the founding of the colonies. Bremer studies Winthrop's
early life in exhaustive detail, chronicling how his first four
decades, in England, shaped his views and actions as the first governor
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Bremer focuses on his youthful
spiritual struggles, carefully recorded in a journal, including his
early decision to pursue a religious vocation and his sudden,
unexplained decision to give that up to marry his first wife when he
was only 17. After he gained the respect of his peers as an even-handed
magistrate, he was elected governor of the new Massachusetts Bay
Colony, where for eight years he governed with a judicious hand,
mediating in religious and political feuds, including the expulsions of
Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson for their dissenting views. Bremer
uses previously unavailable materials in the Winthrop archives to
vividly recreate the religious and political reform movements in early
17th-century England. Bremer's definitive biography gracefully portrays
Winthrop as a man of his time, whose influence in the new colony grew
out of his own struggles to establish his identity before he left
England.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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World of John Winthrop: England And New England, 1588-1649
When John Winthrop, first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony,
emigrated from Stuart England to America, he and the colonists who
accompanied him carried much of their culture with them. Written by
leading English and American scholars, the essays in The World of John Winthrop: England and New England, 1588-1649
vigorously assert a new unity to the transatlantic and Puritan,
Anglo-American sphere, integrating the English and colonial stories
from a refreshingly single perspective.
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The Puritan Experiment: New England Society from Bradford to Edwards
This is a very successful attempt to produce an overview of the Puritan experience in New England. Arguably the most important single group on American history, this relatively small collection of religously inspired immigrants generated a number of cultural and political trends that continue as important features of American life. Bremer provides the basic narrative structure, social and demographic history, and theological history of the Puritan experiment in a concise and well written book of less than 250 pages. Readers will be struck with how features of the Puritan experience continue to resonate today, particularly certain aspects of the Puritan religous experience. Also impressive is how aspects of Puritan history in the 17th century prefigured events of the later 18th century. The New England colonies' conflicts with the centralizing tendency of the later Stuart kings, the resentment towards imperialistic economic policies, the emphasis on relatively broad political participation, all have important parallels in the struggles that lead up to the Revolution. Not surprisingly, religion occupies a central place in this book. Bremer does a particularly good job of describing the Puritans' sense of themselves as a chosen people, their involvement in a trans-Atlantic religous culture, and their complex theology. Perhaps the only deficiency, and this is relatively minor, is Bremer's less thorough treatment of the 18th century. While the narrative continues up to the death of Jonathan Edwards in 1758, the treatment of the 18th century is more superficial than of the 17th century. This is probably an understandable result of Bremer's desire to keep this book concise. There is also a very nice annotated bibliography. In using the latter, readers should bear in mind that this edition was published in 1995 and there have been important works published since 1995. There is no reference, for example, to George Marsden's outstanding biography of Jonathan Edwards, which was published last year. Overall, this is a very valuable distillation of the broad and impressive body of scholarship concerning these fascinating people.
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Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America
A Comprehensive Encyclopedia
This exhaustive treatment of the Puritan movement covers its doctrines, its people, its effects on politics and culture, and its enduring legacy in modern Britain and America.
Puritans: black-coated, grim, prim, prudish witch chasers. Some common characterizations are correct; many are not. This comprehensive treatment of Puritans and Puritanism sorts fact from fiction, and presents the broadest picture ever of the Puritan movement, a driving force in the founding of America and a continuing influence on American and British norms.
Puritanism began in the 1530s as a reform movement within the Church of England. It endured into the 18th century. In between, it powerfully influenced the course of political events both in Britain and in the United States. Puritanism shaped the American colonies, particularly New England. It was a key ingredient in literature, from authors as diverse as John Milton and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although Puritanism as a formal movement has been gone for more than 300 years, its influence continues on the mores and norms of America and Britain.
This ambitious work contains nearly 700 entries covering people, events, ideas, and doctrines—the whole of Puritanism. Exhaustive and authoritative, it draws on the work of more than 80 leading scholars in the field. Impeccable scholarship combines with eminent readability to make this a valuable work for all readers and researchers from secondary school up.
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