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The American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry

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Perry Miller -- who, regardless of what the credit on top says, was not the photographer in this pictureless collection, but the editor -- was the twentieth century's most towering colonial historian. Terrifying generation after generation of graduate students at Harvard, Miller was one of those people who knew absolutely everything about his subject: the American Puritans. A confirmed atheist, Miller spent his life exploring the lives of the most religious of all American groups. This anthology, which has been in print for the better part of half-a-century, is still the basic introduction to the subject in most schools. Taking excerpts on all the most important subjects, Miller introduces each with his own framework of ideas and connections; although the ellipses can come to annoy once you really get into the subject, there is still no good substitute for this collection. Indispensable to anybody wanting the primary texts of that most influential of all religious groups in America, the Puritans.