Trump And The Puritans

Download Trump And The Puritans full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Trump And The Puritans ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Trump And The Puritans

Author : James Roberts
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1785905511
Total Pages : 178 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (859 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Trump And The Puritans by : James Roberts

Download or read book Trump And The Puritans written by James Roberts and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year 2020 is a hugely significant one for the United States of America, marking as it does the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower Pilgrims to the New World and their establishment of a 'godly' colony in (what was for them) the 'American wilderness'. But it is also the year of the next Presidential election, one where the current occupant is expected to stand for re-election. Many millions of Americans will not see this as a random juxtaposition of events, since for them the unlikely person of Donald Trump is the one chosen by God to implement a twenty-first-century programme of godly rule and the restoration of American spiritual exceptionalism that is directly rooted in those far-off times when Puritan settlers (who followed in 1630) first established a semi-theocratic 'New Jerusalem' in the 'New World'. The USA is the home of more Christians than any other nation on earth. In 2014 research revealed that 70.6 per cent of Americans identified as Christians of some form with 25.4% identifying as 'Evangelicals'. Eighty-one per cent of them, around 33.7 million people, voted Trump in 2016. How can it be that self-described Christians of the 'Evangelical Religious Right' see, of all people, Donald Trump as their political representative and thus defender of their cause? Trump and the Puritans argues that while Donald Trump is no Puritan, the long-term influence of these 17th century radicals makes the USA different from any other Western democracy, and that this influence motivates and energizes a key element of his base to an astonishing degree and has played a major part in delivering political power to Trump.

The American School

Author : Joel Spring
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351383574
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (513 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The American School by : Joel Spring

Download or read book The American School written by Joel Spring and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This current, comprehensive history of American education is designed to stimulate critical analysis and critical thinking by offering alternative interpretations of each historical period. In his signature straight-forward, concise style, Joel Spring provides a variety of interpretations of American schooling, from conservative to leftist, in order to spark the reader’s own critical thinking about history and schools. This tenth edition follows the history of American education from the seventeenth century to the integration into global capitalism of the twenty-first century to the tumultuous current political landscape. In particular, the updates focus on tracing the direct religious links between the colonial Puritans and the current-day Trump administration. Chapters 1 and 2 have been rewritten to take a closer look at religious traditions in American schools, leading up to the educational ideas of the current U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. An updated Chapter 15 further links traditional religious fundamentalist ideas and the twentieth century free market arguments of the Chicago school of economists to President Trump’s administration and the influence of the Alt-Right.

Trump and the Protestant Reaction to Make America Great Again

Author : Matthew Rowley
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000297144
Total Pages : 121 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Trump and the Protestant Reaction to Make America Great Again by : Matthew Rowley

Download or read book Trump and the Protestant Reaction to Make America Great Again written by Matthew Rowley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores how polarised interpretations of America’s past influence the present and vice versa. A focus on competing Protestant reactions to President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan evidences a fundamental divide over how America should remember historical racism, sexism and exploitation. Additionally, these Protestants disagree over how the past influences present injustice and equality. The 2020 killing of George Floyd forced these rival histories into the open. Rowley proposes that recovering a complex view of the past, confessing the bad and embracing the good, might help Americans have a shared memory that can bridge polarisation and work to secure justice and equality. An accessible and timely book, this is essential reading for those concerned with the vexed relationship of religion and politics in the United States, including students and scholars in the fields of Protestantism, history, political science, religious studies and sociology.

American Covenant

Author : Philip Gorski
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691191670
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis American Covenant by : Philip Gorski

Download or read book American Covenant written by Philip Gorski and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long battle between exclusionary and inclusive versions of the American story Was America founded as a Christian nation or a secular democracy? Neither, argues Philip Gorski in American Covenant. What the founders envisioned was a prophetic republic that would weave together the ethical vision of the Hebrew prophets and the Western political heritage of civic republicanism. In this eye-opening book, Gorski shows why this civil religious tradition is now in peril—and with it the American experiment. American Covenant traces the history of prophetic republicanism from the Puritan era to today, providing insightful portraits of figures ranging from John Winthrop and W.E.B. Du Bois to Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. Featuring a new preface by the author, this incisive book demonstrates how half a century of culture war has drowned out the quieter voices of the vital center, and demonstrates that if we are to rebuild that center, we must recover the civil religious tradition on which the republic was founded.

Who Is an Evangelical?

Author : Thomas S. Kidd
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300249047
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Who Is an Evangelical? by : Thomas S. Kidd

Download or read book Who Is an Evangelical? written by Thomas S. Kidd and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading historian of evangelicalism offers a concise history of evangelicals and how they became who they are today Evangelicalism is arguably America’s most controversial religious movement. Nonevangelical people who follow the news may have a variety of impressions about what “evangelical” means. But one certain association they make with evangelicals is white Republicans. Many may recall that 81 percent of self†‘described white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, and they may well wonder at the seeming hypocrisy of doing so. In this illuminating book, Thomas Kidd draws on his expertise in American religious history to retrace the arc of this spiritual movement, illustrating just how historically peculiar that political and ethnic definition (white Republican) of evangelicals is. He examines distortions in the public understanding of evangelicals, and shows how a group of “Republican insider evangelicals” aided the politicization of the movement. This book will be a must†‘read for those trying to better understand the shifting religious and political landscape of America today.

Spellbound

Author : Molly Worthen
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0593729005
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (937 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Spellbound by : Molly Worthen

Download or read book Spellbound written by Molly Worthen and published by Random House. This book was released on 2025-05-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when Americans lose faith in their religious institutions—and politicians fill the void? From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this sweeping history by a New York Times contributing opinion writer will change your understanding of the forces that create leaders and hold their followers captive. Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here? With Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans to Black nationalists to Donald Trump, Worthen argues, America has seen figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. These leaders promise entry into a "promised land" where their hopes are fulfilled and their grievances are put right—and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone know the way. The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, Americans get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders meet spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory. Through Worthen’s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.

The Rise of the New Puritans

Author : Noah Rothman
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0063160013
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (631 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Rise of the New Puritans by : Noah Rothman

Download or read book The Rise of the New Puritans written by Noah Rothman and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2022-07-05 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” -H.L. Mencken The Left used to be the party of the hippies and the free spirits. Now it’s home to woke scolds and humorless idealogues. The New Puritans can judge a person’s moral character by their clothes, Netflix queue, fast food favorites, the sports they watch, and the company they keep. No choice is neutral, no sphere is private. Not since the Puritans has a political movement wanted so much power over your thoughts, hobbies, and preferences every minute of your day. In the process, they are sucking the joy out of life. In The Rise of the New Puritans, Noah Rothman explains how, in pursuit of a better world, progressives are ruining the very things which make life worth living. They’ve created a society full of verbal trip wires and digital witch hunts. Football? Too violent. Fusion food? Appropriation. The nuclear family? Oppressive. Witty, deeply researched, and thorough, The Rise of the New Puritans encourages us to spurn a movement whose primary goal has become limiting happiness. It uncovers the historical roots of the left’s war on fun and reminds us of the freedom and personal fulfillment at the heart of the American experiment.

The Puritans

Author : David D. Hall
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691203377
Total Pages : 526 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Puritans by : David D. Hall

Download or read book The Puritans written by David D. Hall and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Shedding critical new light on the diverse forms of Puritan belief and practice in England, Scotland, and New England, Hall provides a multifaceted account of a cultural movement that judged the Protestant reforms of Elizabeth's reign to be unfinished"--Provided by publisher.

The Puritan Legacy to American Politics

Author :
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3640660633
Total Pages : 19 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (46 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Puritan Legacy to American Politics by :

Download or read book The Puritan Legacy to American Politics written by and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-07-13 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: Americans express a peculiar fascination with the founding of their country. Both citizens and scholars often disagree over details of the beginnings but many Americans define themselves in relation to the founding. History inspires them and provides a patriotic sense of belonging. It is often debated whether current policies are faithful to the so-called founding principles, what has stayed the same and what has changed. Though many countries celebrate their birth, only Americans combine so much cultural myths and political history. Alexis de Tocqueville famously said: “I think I can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on those shores”(Tocqueville 1831-32). And indeed, much of American mainstream culture builds on a Puritan legacy. They claim to have inherited it by promoting the idea of religious freedom and equal opportunity, by being a ‘city upon a hill’, a stronghold for democracy, and much more. However, only by retracing the historical development of Puritanism and its roots, it becomes possible to determine what sufficiently defines the Puritan legacy and what causes the persistent relevance in American politics up to this day. As Perry Miller stated, “[w]ithout some understanding of Puritanism, it may safely be said, there is no understanding of America” (Miller 1950, 4). In this work I will therefore begin with reviewing the historical background of Puritan theology and development in North America. Given this as a basis, I intend to trace back political modes of thought and behavior to Puritan roots. I will answer the question in how far Puritanism is still alive today and how its legacy to American politics can be described.

American Exceptionalism

Author : Ian Tyrrell
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226833429
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis American Exceptionalism by : Ian Tyrrell

Download or read book American Exceptionalism written by Ian Tyrrell and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2024-06-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful dissection of a core American myth. The idea that the United States is unlike every other country in world history is a surprisingly resilient one. Throughout his distinguished career, Ian Tyrrell has been one of the most influential historians of the idea of American exceptionalism, but he has never written a book focused solely on it until now. The notion that American identity might be exceptional emerged, Tyrrell shows, from the belief that the nascent early republic was not simply a postcolonial state but a genuinely new experiment in an imperialist world dominated by Britain. Prior to the Civil War, American exceptionalism fostered declarations of cultural, economic, and spatial independence. As the country grew in population and size, becoming a major player in the global order, its exceptionalist beliefs came more and more into focus—and into question. Over time, a political divide emerged: those who believed that America’s exceptionalism was the basis of its virtue and those who saw America as either a long way from perfect or actually fully unexceptional, and thus subject to universal demands for justice. Tyrrell masterfully articulates the many forces that made American exceptionalism such a divisive and definitional concept. Today, he notes, the demands that people acknowledge America’s exceptionalism have grown ever more strident, even as the material and moral evidence for that exceptionalism—to the extent that there ever was any—has withered away.

The Puritan Legacy to American Politics

Author : Anonym
Publisher : GRIN Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3640661079
Total Pages : 37 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (46 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Puritan Legacy to American Politics by : Anonym

Download or read book The Puritan Legacy to American Politics written by Anonym and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2010-07-16 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Free University of Berlin, language: English, abstract: Americans express a peculiar fascination with the founding of their country. Both citizens and scholars often disagree over details of the beginnings but many Americans define themselves in relation to the founding. History inspires them and provides a patriotic sense of belonging. It is often debated whether current policies are faithful to the so-called founding principles, what has stayed the same and what has changed. Though many countries celebrate their birth, only Americans combine so much cultural myths and political history. Alexis de Tocqueville famously said: "I think I can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on those shores"(Tocqueville 1831-32). And indeed, much of American mainstream culture builds on a Puritan legacy. They claim to have inherited it by promoting the idea of religious freedom and equal opportunity, by being a 'city upon a hill', a stronghold for democracy, and much more. However, only by retracing the historical development of Puritanism and its roots, it becomes possible to determine what sufficiently defines the Puritan legacy and what causes the persistent relevance in American politics up to this day. As Perry Miller stated, " w]ithout some understanding of Puritanism, it may safely be said, there is no understanding of America" (Miller 1950, 4). In this work I will therefore begin with reviewing the historical background of Puritan theology and development in North America. Given this as a basis, I intend to trace back political modes of thought and behavior to Puritan roots. I will answer the question in how far Puritanism is still alive today and how its legacy to American politics can be described.

Fantasyland

Author : Kurt Andersen
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1588366871
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (883 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Fantasyland by : Kurt Andersen

Download or read book Fantasyland written by Kurt Andersen and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The single most important explanation, and the fullest explanation, of how Donald Trump became president of the United States . . . nothing less than the most important book that I have read this year.”—Lawrence O’Donnell How did we get here? In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen shows that what’s happening in our country today—this post-factual, “fake news” moment we’re all living through—is not something new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by hucksters and their suckers. Fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA. Over the course of five centuries—from the Salem witch trials to Scientology to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, from P. T. Barnum to Hollywood and the anything-goes, wild-and-crazy sixties, from conspiracy theories to our fetish for guns and obsession with extraterrestrials—our love of the fantastic has made America exceptional in a way that we've never fully acknowledged. From the start, our ultra-individualism was attached to epic dreams and epic fantasies—every citizen was free to believe absolutely anything, or to pretend to be absolutely anybody. With the gleeful erudition and tell-it-like-it-is ferocity of a Christopher Hitchens, Andersen explores whether the great American experiment in liberty has gone off the rails. Fantasyland could not appear at a more perfect moment. If you want to understand Donald Trump and the culture of twenty-first-century America, if you want to know how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you must read this book. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE “This is a blockbuster of a book. Take a deep breath and dive in.”—Tom Brokaw “[An] absorbing, must-read polemic . . . a provocative new study of America’s cultural history.”—Newsday “Compelling and totally unnerving.”—The Village Voice “A frighteningly convincing and sometimes uproarious picture of a country in steep, perhaps terminal decline that would have the founding fathers weeping into their beards.”—The Guardian “This is an important book—the indispensable book—for understanding America in the age of Trump.”—Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci

As a City on a Hill

Author : Daniel T. Rodgers
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691210551
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis As a City on a Hill by : Daniel T. Rodgers

Download or read book As a City on a Hill written by Daniel T. Rodgers and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill," John Winthrop warned his fellow Puritans at New England's founding in 1630. More than three centuries later, Ronald Reagan remade that passage into a timeless celebration of American promise. How were Winthrop's long-forgotten words reinvented as a central statement of American identity and exceptionalism? In As a City on a Hill, leading American intellectual historian Daniel Rodgers tells the surprising story of one of the most celebrated documents in the canon of the American idea. In doing so, he brings to life the ideas Winthrop's text carried in its own time and the sharply different yearnings that have been attributed to it since. As a City on a Hill shows how much more malleable, more saturated with vulnerability, and less distinctly American Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity" was than the document that twentieth-century Americans invented. Across almost four centuries, Rodgers traces striking shifts in the meaning of Winthrop's words--from Winthrop's own anxious reckoning with the scrutiny of the world, through Abraham Lincoln's haunting reference to this "almost chosen people," to the "city on a hill" that African Americans hoped to construct in Liberia, to the era of Donald Trump. As a City on a Hill reveals the circuitous, unexpected ways Winthrop's words came to lodge in American consciousness. At the same time, the book offers a probing reflection on how nationalism encourages the invention of "timeless" texts to straighten out the crooked realities of the past.

The Puritan Origins of the American Self

Author : Sacvan Bercovitch
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300021172
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (211 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Puritan Origins of the American Self by : Sacvan Bercovitch

Download or read book The Puritan Origins of the American Self written by Sacvan Bercovitch and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1975-01-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Errata slip inserted. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Albion's Seed

Author : David Hackett Fischer
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019974369X
Total Pages : 981 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Albion's Seed by : David Hackett Fischer

Download or read book Albion's Seed written by David Hackett Fischer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-03-14 with total page 981 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time. In this sense, nearly all Americans are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnicity may be. The concluding section of this remarkable book explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still help to shape attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.

Can America Be Great Again?

Author : Ssemugoma Evangelist FRANCISCO
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 38 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (519 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Can America Be Great Again? by : Ssemugoma Evangelist FRANCISCO

Download or read book Can America Be Great Again? written by Ssemugoma Evangelist FRANCISCO and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-07 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reformation which was started by Martin Luther in 1517, gave rise to the Puritans who fled from Europe because of the persecutions and went to the land which came to be known as, the United States of America (USA) and a new nation was given birth to, basing on Christian principles.The Puritans risked their lives to cross the ocean in the Mayflower because they were fleeing from religious persecution. They were named Puritans, a derogatory term for their brand of extreme Christianity - and things went badly for them in England in the last half of the 16th century. The persecution they faced in England was genuine. People were killed for their beliefs. So they fled to Holland, hoping for better reception of their particular beliefs. The trouble is, the Dutch were far too tolerant and libertine for the severe Puritans, however, the Puritan Pilgrims left Holland for the "New World" not to escape religious persecution, but because they were not allowed to impose their extreme code of morality on those around them. They were not allowed to inflict their beliefs on people who did not share their beliefs.The Puritan pilgrims, became the Founding Fathers of USA, though some of these had some diverse beliefs such as, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine were Deists. (For those unfamiliar with Deism, it acknowledges a creator but disavows any sort of interaction between the creator and the creation. In other words, God made the world but left us to our own devices, not conversing with us through holy writings, revelations, or prayers.) Alexander Hamilton was Anglican. James Madison called himself Anglican but was more of a Deist. John Adams was a Congregationalist early on, but he converted to Unitarianism. John Jay was an Orthodox Christian etc, never the less, God used them to begin a God fearing Christian nation in the names of USA.

The Wordy Shipmates

Author : Sarah Vowell
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1440638691
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (46 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Wordy Shipmates by : Sarah Vowell

Download or read book The Wordy Shipmates written by Sarah Vowell and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-10-07 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, The Wordy Shipmates is New York Times bestselling author Sarah Vowell's exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop's "city upon a hill," a shining example, a "city that cannot be hid." To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Vowell investigates what that means? and what it should mean. What was this great political enterprise all about? Who were these people who are considered the philosophical, spiritual, and moral ancestors of our nation? What Vowell discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoe-buckles-and- corn reputation might suggest. The people she finds are highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty. Their story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Along the way she asks: *Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christlike Christian, or conformity?s tyrannical enforcer? Answer: Yes! *Was Rhode Island?s architect, Roger Williams, America?s founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference. *What does it take to get that jezebel Anne Hutchinson to shut up? A hatchet. *What was the Puritans? pet name for the Pope? The Great Whore of Babylon. Sarah Vowell?s special brand of armchair history makes the bizarre and esoteric fascinatingly relevant and fun. She takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where ?righteousness? is rhymed with ?wilderness,? to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America?s most celebrated voices. Thou shalt enjoy it.