Customer Reviews

John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise

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Like many Americans, I've long known that England's King Charles I was executed in the 1600's. After reading Marc Aronson's account, recommended to me by my history-teacher son, I now understand why. As the title suggests, author Aronson has penned two parallel stories about two societies, one ancient and the other brand new, and their struggles to define the rights of man. John Winthrop and Oliver Cromwell were a pair of strong-principled, like-minded puritans who chose to act upon their convictions in two different ways. Aronson clearly delineates their successes and failures, and brilliantly demonstrates how these two pivotal political movements resulted, 150 years later, in the founding of the United States. While I personally disagree with the premise that the death of King Charles was necessary, I can see why those who thought it was acted the way they did.

This book is listed in the young adult genre, but it is anything but simplistic and suitable for adults as well, perhaps more so.

This book is not a good children's book! The first chapter has the subtitle "Notorious Whores" and he even states that "the early roots of American Democracy are identical to the Taliban." Is this really what we want our children to read??