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Not Even Past

Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England, by William Cronon (1983)

By Jesse Ritner Thirty-five years ago William Cronon wrote Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England.  It has aged well.  The continued relevance of the book is likely a result of two things.  First, it is eminently readable. Flipping through the pages, one can imagine the forests that Cronon describes and […]

Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England by Jane Kamensky (1999)

Governing the Tongue discusses the importance of verbal communication in seventeenth-century New England society. Kamensky argues that early settlers were uniquely preoccupied with the act of speech and held to specific but unwritten rules about correct speaking.

Re-Reading John Winthrop’s “City upon the Hill”

The city upon the hill that Winthrop sought to create in New England is a different world from that of his alleged ideological heirs. For Winthrop, the stakes of getting the city right were high (and they continue to be). To build a lasting “city upon the hill” the Puritans needed to create a society held together by charity, mercy, and love.

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