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The Founding of New England
Winner of the 1922 Pulitzer Prize in History.
Paperback
First published July 1, 1921
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About the author
James Truslow Adams
249 books9 followersBorn to a wealthy Yankee family in Brooklyn, New York, Adams took his bachelor's degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1898, and a MA degree from Yale University in 1900. He entered investment banking, rising to partner in a New York Stock Exchange member firm. until 1912. In 1912, he considered his savings ample enough to switch his to a career as a writer.
Adams coined the term "American Dream" in his 1931 book The Epic of America. His American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.
An American historian, Adams wrote The Founding of New England (1921), which brought him the Pulitzer Prize in history for 1922, was followed by Revolutionary New England, 1691–1776 (1923) and New England in the Republic, 1776–1850 (1926). Among the best of his many books are Provincial Society, 1690–1763 (Vol. III in the “History of American Life” series, 1927) and The Epic of America (1931), which was widely translated. The Adams Family (1930) and Henry Adams (1933) were books on the famous Massachusetts clan, to which he was not related.
Adams coined the term "American Dream" in his 1931 book The Epic of America. His American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.
An American historian, Adams wrote The Founding of New England (1921), which brought him the Pulitzer Prize in history for 1922, was followed by Revolutionary New England, 1691–1776 (1923) and New England in the Republic, 1776–1850 (1926). Among the best of his many books are Provincial Society, 1690–1763 (Vol. III in the “History of American Life” series, 1927) and The Epic of America (1931), which was widely translated. The Adams Family (1930) and Henry Adams (1933) were books on the famous Massachusetts clan, to which he was not related.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 21, 2024
A very thorough history of New England but very much of its time. While the lens of historiography has switched its ever present gaze onto different aspects of the human adventure on this spiraling blue marble, the core of Adams’ work remains assessable. The narrative is very dated especially when discussing indigenous peoples, but the language itself is a door to an understanding of the prevailing interpretation a century ago of the history of a place and its people.
“Histories of the individual states are almost as arbitrarily localized as the histories of countries within them; but the story of any of the sections into which the country has divided from time to time possesses in organic unity, created by the forces of life itself.”
“One of the most popular misconceptions of the Indian is that of his belief in a great spirit. Nowhere in American aboriginal life do we find anything approaching such a conception. The Indian was in the animistic stage of religious belief. For the Algonquins or the Iroquois Believed in magic power which might exist in objects, forces, animals, and even men, superior to man’s natural qualities; in the Indians, religious beliefs centered about his to some embodied form of this power. He believed in good spirits and bad, which could be controlled or invoked by prayer, offerings, charms, or incantations, and had developed a large body of myths to explain the universe and his relation to it.”
“ liberty is not, as our forefathers were too often told, a natural fact. The only natural liberty is that granted to the individual, human or brute, to sustain his life and propagate his species if he can, in the face of a universe almost overwhelmingly bent upon his destruction. civil liberty, on the other hand, is purely social, and is a very delicate and varying adjustment of rights in duties in the succeeding stages of man’s institutional development, which has risen and fallen in the past, as that equilibrium has been distributed.”
“Histories of the individual states are almost as arbitrarily localized as the histories of countries within them; but the story of any of the sections into which the country has divided from time to time possesses in organic unity, created by the forces of life itself.”
“One of the most popular misconceptions of the Indian is that of his belief in a great spirit. Nowhere in American aboriginal life do we find anything approaching such a conception. The Indian was in the animistic stage of religious belief. For the Algonquins or the Iroquois Believed in magic power which might exist in objects, forces, animals, and even men, superior to man’s natural qualities; in the Indians, religious beliefs centered about his to some embodied form of this power. He believed in good spirits and bad, which could be controlled or invoked by prayer, offerings, charms, or incantations, and had developed a large body of myths to explain the universe and his relation to it.”
“ liberty is not, as our forefathers were too often told, a natural fact. The only natural liberty is that granted to the individual, human or brute, to sustain his life and propagate his species if he can, in the face of a universe almost overwhelmingly bent upon his destruction. civil liberty, on the other hand, is purely social, and is a very delicate and varying adjustment of rights in duties in the succeeding stages of man’s institutional development, which has risen and fallen in the past, as that equilibrium has been distributed.”
October 10, 2024
The Devilish Details in the Founding of New England
As the 1922 winner of the #pulitzerprizeforhistory , #thefoundingofnewengland by #jamestruslowadams dives deep into the motivations and mindsets of these men who are immortalized in the syrupy tales of buckled-shoe pilgrims carving out a new world in the American frontier. While the myth endures, this exhaustive, well researched work dives deep into the colonial and parliamentary records to reveal the machinations of a small group of religious zealots who planned to create a theocratic oligarchy with no respect to the crown nor notions of freedom and democracy.
Rather, their goal, fueled by utter disdain of every other Christian faith,.even worse, secularists was to thwart the ambitions of people who came to America to be free and to purge the land of indigenous savages even as they strived to convert them. Their willingness to murder, imprison and purge in the name of their God, resounds today. An historic cautionary tale!
As the 1922 winner of the #pulitzerprizeforhistory , #thefoundingofnewengland by #jamestruslowadams dives deep into the motivations and mindsets of these men who are immortalized in the syrupy tales of buckled-shoe pilgrims carving out a new world in the American frontier. While the myth endures, this exhaustive, well researched work dives deep into the colonial and parliamentary records to reveal the machinations of a small group of religious zealots who planned to create a theocratic oligarchy with no respect to the crown nor notions of freedom and democracy.
Rather, their goal, fueled by utter disdain of every other Christian faith,.even worse, secularists was to thwart the ambitions of people who came to America to be free and to purge the land of indigenous savages even as they strived to convert them. Their willingness to murder, imprison and purge in the name of their God, resounds today. An historic cautionary tale!
November 5, 2025
Between Plymouth & 1700
I believe this is the first book I've read that tells about the lives of the first New England settlers from their England exit through 1700. Not all about Indian wars and such, but about the religious conflicts, the government by theocracy, and inhumane treatment of anyone who didn't conform. And that was before the witch trials. It made me a little embarrassed that we started out that way. This is a lengthy Pulitzer winner from 1922, but I still highly recommend it.
I believe this is the first book I've read that tells about the lives of the first New England settlers from their England exit through 1700. Not all about Indian wars and such, but about the religious conflicts, the government by theocracy, and inhumane treatment of anyone who didn't conform. And that was before the witch trials. It made me a little embarrassed that we started out that way. This is a lengthy Pulitzer winner from 1922, but I still highly recommend it.
November 27, 2024
The book reads more like a textbook rather than an informative history. This most likely derives from the fact that it was published a 100 years ago. A lot more European background of the settlers than I expected. A bit confounding that it won a Pulitzer.
May 16, 2021
History
Very informative history of the early native Americans of the East Coast. And the atrocities that occurred... It'll haunt me.
Very informative history of the early native Americans of the East Coast. And the atrocities that occurred... It'll haunt me.
April 5, 2017
Not bad. Strongest when it covers the Puritanical theocracy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Weakest when it is going through land titles and legal rights. I liked it.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews