Overview

A radical new interpretation of the political and intellectual history of Puritan Massachusetts, The Making of an American Thinking Class envisions the Bay colony as a seventeenth century one-party state, where congregations served as ideological 'cells' and authority was restricted to an educated elite of ministers and magistrates. From there Staloff offers a broadened conception of the interstices of political, social, and intellectual authority in Puritan Massachusetts and beyond, arguing that ideologies, as well as ideological politics, are produced by self-conscious, and often class-conscious, thinkers.

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9780195149821

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Reviews

Every chapter provides detailed analyses of threats to the balance of power ... Staloff is at his most effective when he provides 'close readings' of this complex process of contentious consensus ... genuinely impressive erudition in the early history of New England. --W. Clark Gilpin, University of Chicago<br> Staloff presents a provocative argument. It is a thoughtful, intelligent work, one that considers the Puritan elite as dynamic and self-interested. The book is certain to rekindle interest (if it ever died out) in the intellectual history of the Puritans in New England and show us how we can use innovations from other fields, such as sociology, to refine our thinking about history. --The New England Quarterly<br>

<br> Every chapter provides detailed analyses of threats to the balance of power ... Staloff is at his most effective when he provides 'close readings' of this complex process of contentious consensus ... genuinely impressive erudition in the early history of New England. --W. Clark Gilpin, University of Chicago<br> Staloff presents a provocative argument. It is a thoughtful, intelligent work, one that considers the Puritan elite as dynamic and self-interested. The book is certain to rekindle interest (if it ever died out) in the intellectual history of the Puritans in New England and show us how we can use innovations from other fields, such as sociology, to refine our thinking about history. --The New England Quarterly<br>

Every chapter provides detailed analyses of threats to the balance of power ... Staloff is at his most effective when he provides 'close readings' of this complex process of contentious consensus ... genuinely impressive erudition in the early history of New England. --W. Clark Gilpin, Universityof Chicago Staloff presents a provocative argument. It is a thoughtful, intelligent work, one that considers the Puritan elite as dynamic and self-interested. The book is certain to rekindle interest (if it ever died out) in the intellectual history of the Puritans in New England and show us how we can use innovations from other fields, such as sociology, to refine our thinking about history. --The New England Quarterly

Author Information

Darren Staloff is Assistant Professor of History at City College of New York.

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