Puritans: Religion and Politics in Seventeenth-Century England and America

by John Adair

Adair, John

Genres: History, Religion, American History, Nonfiction, Politics

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1983

About the author

John Eric Adair is a British academic who is a leadership theorist and author of more than forty books (translated into eighteen languages) on business, military and other leadership.

Reviews

[Graham Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating journey into the origins of America

I am very happy to learn . And I learned a lot .This book gave me the historical background of the founding of America. Very well researched and excellently written . Truly fascinating.

[Carol Keogh (Goodfellow) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a fascinating, well researched and informative insight on the America found by those intrepid adventurers to a new and scary landscape. I very much enjoyed this book and recommend it to any student on early America.

[Robert G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today’s headlines written yesterday

Much of this book could be taking from world headlines of today. The essence is that individual freedoms will seep away if not diligently maintained

[Mark Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a sprawling account of English religious dissenters (derisively referred to as "Puritans") as they established a foothold in Massachusetts and fought and won a Civil War in England and launched a republic before giving way to the monarchy in 1660 during the Restoration. The book admirably seeks to dispel many myths surrounding Puritans — while practical and devout, they also also supported Enlightenment advances in science and reason. Women were also given near equal status in Puritan households, and were in some instances, allowed to preach. I would like to have seen more about what caused the gradual decline of the Puritans — Cromwellian excesses in England and religious intolerance towards other sects in America (Quakers and Presbyterians).

[Andrea Weider · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointed! I was hoping for more information about the actual towns in New England and their founding fathers. My ancestor was a Puritan and founded the town of Sudbury, MA. The English history was interesting.

[Bill · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last chapter, "The Puritan Inside" is more than a little insipid (hey kids...we were dark suits because that's what Puritans wore!).

Otherwise, this is really just a series of essays written by (apparently) a Puritan fanboy (who knew there was such a thing). The author admits this in the preface and really, it's quite OK for the structure of the book.

Not a bad book by any means, but the high-level topics are fairly random and the detail really just tells us that the author did a bunch of research up to and including visiting many of the places he talks about. It doesn't really do much to expound on the topic at hand.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

The cover was pretty cool. Let me add that the last chapter was called "the puritan within". That's right, we all have a puritan deep down inside of us. Creepy.