New England Mind

The New England Mind: From Colony to Province is one of Perry Miller’s masterworks, exploring the intellectual history of the Puritans through a deep investigation of the thought of the Puritan divines. In this book, as well as its predecessor The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century, Miller asserts a single intellectual history for America that could be traced to the Puritan belief system.

It is a fascinating tale. As Miller tells it, it involves the most exciting episodes of a century of Massachusetts history. The debates about the Half-Way Covenant, the witchcraft madness, disputes about currency and inoculation—all these are adroitly related to the upsetting of the old New England way… There is also a penetrating discussion of how new scientific attitudes affected New England thinking., The depth and thoroughness of Miller’s research are matched only by the clarity and wit of his presentation. Few scholars would have had the patience for such an investigation; even fewer could have made their results delightful and absorbing reading., One of the most exciting histories of ideas so far produced in America., Here is the second volume of Perry Miller’s monumental study of the New England mind. In massive detail and with a brilliant combination of scholarship and insight, it presents in new perspective the historical process whereby Puritan became Yankee—as part of that larger process whereby the Reformation became the Enlightenment., A highly significant study. Anyone interested in American intellectual development will ignore it at his peril.