The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > History Massachusetts > Item 34
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The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts
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by Darren Staloff
Sales Rank: 184687
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List Price: $45.00
$50.00
At Amazon
on 11-18-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 300 pages
Published by: Oxford University Press, USA October 25, 2001
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0195149823
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195149821
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
Weighs: 15.8 ounces
Product Review
"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
"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
Product Description
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.
Reader Reviews
In this very interesting interpretation of the New England Puritans, the author shows that a Puritan thinking class, consisting of political magistrates and ministers, guided the Massachusetts Bay colony through a relatively stable 17th century through practices of cultural domination. Puritan biblicism essentially required that an educated elite capable of carefully dissecting, understanding, and enforcing biblical passages occupy positions of power. According to the author, cultural domination consists of the legitimation of both the rulers and the social construct and/or religious community, usually by collective consent, public agreement by elites concerning their social policies, deference to elite expressions, forced if necessary, and the suppression of socially undermining dissent. Legitimation was achieved by extending voting privileges to choose political leaders to men of the colony who were church members, now elevated to so-called freemen, and permitting the laity to participate in "gathering" a church and to select ministers. However, once political or religious leaders were selected, it was expected that their judgments and actions would be unquestioned. The magisterial and ministerial elites formed the dominant "inner" party, while representatives of the people, or deputies, formed a secondary "outer" party. However, the author refers to the Bay colony as a one-party state. Alliances among the two elements of the inner party and the outer party shifted every so often, but the inner party never ceased to exert cultural domination. Virtually all of the major controversies in the colony were of a religious nature such as Arminianism, Antinomianism, and baptism and the Half-Way Covenant. Interesting is the contrast of the soft handling of those in the inner party with contrary views with the far harsher dealings with outsiders, such as Quakers, with differing opinions. The inner party always managed the problems to their continued dominant standing. For example, the minister of the first church of Boston, John Cotton, was persuaded that his religious "enthusiasms" were contrary to orthodox Puritan belief and practice, while layperson Anne Hutchinson was banned from the colony. The book is not a year-by-year history of the Bay colony. However, it extensively, if not tediously, examines the principal controversial issues of the colony, especially those that challenged the core beliefs and practices of the Puritan thinking class. Looking at the Puritans through a class perspective adds to understanding Puritan elite dominance and persistence.
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The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts
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Price: $50.00
Updated on 11-18-2008.
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