John Winthrop America's Forgotten Founding Father

by Bremer, Francis J.

• ISBN13: 9780195179811
• ISBN10: 0195179811
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-03-31
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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-breakingtreatment 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 skillshe 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, hisfeelings 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 Professor of History at Millersville University and Editor of the Winthrop Papers for the Massachusetts Historical Society. He lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments and Thanks	ix
Introduction	xv
Prologue	1	(10)
Part One Heritage
Lavenham to London	11	(12)
Reformation	23	(16)
John and Adam	39	(28)
Part Two Struggle
Youth	67	(22)
Turning Points	89	(16)
A Godly Magistrate	105	(20)
The Godly Embattled	125	(22)
The Decision to Migrate	147	(40)
Interlude Christian Charity	173	(14)
Part Three Errand
Passing Through Hell	187	(16)
The Best of Them Was But an Attorney	203	(26)
Relations with England	229	(12)
On the Fringe	241	(20)
War	261	(14)
Struggling to Hold the Center	275	(26)
New Trials and Disappointments	301	(22)
War Clouds and Concerns	323	(26)
Under Attack	349	(22)
Last Years	371	(8)
Epilogue	379	(8)
Notes	387	(78)
Index	465