John Winthrop America's Forgotten Founding Father

by Bremer, Francis J.

• ISBN13: 9780195149135
• ISBN10: 0195149130
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The preeminent figure of early New England, John Winthrop was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. More than anyone else, he shaped the culture of New England and his effort to create a Puritan "City on a Hill" has had a lasting effect on American values. 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 Winthrop, 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.

Author Biography

Francis J. Bremer is Editor of the Winthrop Papers for the Massachusetts Historical Society, has been a visiting scholar at Oxford and Cambridge, and is Professor of History at Millersville University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments and Thanks	p. ix
Introduction	p. xv
Prologue	p. 1
Heritage
Lavenham to London	p. 11
Reformation	p. 23
John and Adam	p. 39
Struggle
Youth	p. 67
Turning Points	p. 89
A Godly Magistrate	p. 105
The Godly Embattled	p. 125
The Decision to Migrate	p. 147
Interlude: Christian Charity	p. 173
Errand
Passing Through Hell	p. 187
The Best of Them Was But an Attorney	p. 203
Relations with England	p. 229
On the Fringe	p. 241
War	p. 261
Struggling to Hold the Center	p. 275
New Trials and Disappointments	p. 301
War Clouds and Concerns	p. 323
Under Attack	p. 349
Last Years	p. 371
Epilogue	p. 379
Notes	p. 387
Index	p. 465
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