The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop [Paperback]

Edmund S. Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1962

In 1630, along with hundreds of other settlers, John Winthrop left England for the New World. Because of his ardent Puritan beliefs and natural talent for government and politics, he was appointed governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. He became the foremost political leader in the colony for nearly 20 years, including twelve nonconsecutive terms as governor. When Winthrop and these new settlers arrived in the New World, they were aiming to create their own utopia, but they encountered difficulty and dissent.

In The Puritan Dilemma: John Winthrop, biographer Edmund Morgan helps us understand the motivations behind Puritan migration to America and the ideological and political difficulties they faced once they arrived. What does freedom mean? What is the proper role of the individual in society? Alongside the unfolding drama of a developing country, Morgan explores the life of John Winthrop and the core question of what level of responsibility people owe to their community and society.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Award-winning historian Edmund S. Morgan is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale, where he taught American history for 30 years. He has written more than 15 books on early American history and is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Scott Foresman & Co (June 1962)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316582867
• ISBN-13: 978-0316582865
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,938,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent use of biography to examine larger issues, December 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (Library of American biography) (Paperback)

One of Edmund Morgan's most enduring works, The Puritan Dilemma, published in 1962, is still a good starting point for understanding the motivations behind Puritan migration to America and the ideological and political difficulties they faced once they arrived. It was Winthrop who declared that the new colony would be as a city on a hill, a new example of community for the rest of the western world. Morgan shows that this statement masks the Puritans' somewhat melancholy desertion of the political revolution brewing back in England, and examines what the search for true community cost in terms of individual freedom as well. The contradictions in Winthrop himself mirror those of the entire Puritan colony and by extension America: what does freedom mean, and what is the proper role of the individual in society? How could a group looking for freedom of worship cast Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams out of their society? Morgan examined the issue of freedom many times, most definitively in American Slavery--American Freedom, but this short biography lays bare fundamental American problems with grace, concision, and a consistent point of view that debunks our culture's simplistic use of the "puritan" label. An intellectual bargain at only 200 pages.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still excellent, August 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

I read this book many years ago for an American Literature class and am now rereading it for an American History class. I enjoyed it the first time and am enjoying it now. The writing is fluid, entertaining; the points made are profound. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Winthrop and the early Puritan immigrants--a quick, pleasurable read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Resource to Understanding Early American Puritanism, February 15, 2006

By 

Ryan B. Jankowski (the State of Euphoria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This is an excellent overview of Winthrop and his Massachusetts Bay Colony. The author traces how John Winthrop struggled with the dilemma, first internally, as he dealt with the question of whether traveling to the New World represented a selfish form of "separatism", the desire to separate himself from an impure England, or whether, as he eventually determined, it offered a unique opportunity to set an example for all men by establishing a shining "City upon a Hill", a purer Christian community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In this regard, it seems to have been of vital importance to Winthrop and his fellow Puritan colonists that they had the imprimatur of the King and that though they were physically distancing themselves from the Church of England, they were not actually renouncing it.

The issues Winthrop faced are no different than what the Church still faces today (though perhaps seemingly less practical). That is, what is the normative and non-arbitrary basis for jurisprudence- Gods' law or autonomy? Gary North's books are particularly helpful in answering this, hopefully, rhetorical question. The sad reality is that most ecclesiastic officers and the Church as a whole are altogether unprepared to deal with the task presented to Winthrop because of their pessimillenialial views despite Christ's admonition that the (defensive!) Gates of Hades shall not prevail against His kingdom.

I highly recommend this book.