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Reviewed by:
  • New England's Crises and Cultural Memory: Literature, Politics, History, Religion, 1620–1860
  • Jennifer Bernstein (bio)
New England's Crises and Cultural Memory: Literature, Politics, History, Religion, 1620–1860. John McWilliams. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. xii, 366 pp.

The field of early American studies has been undergoing a remarkable expansion, one that involves, among other things, taking into consideration transatlantic and cross-cultural connections, the history of the book, and a host of issues related to race, class, and gender. In the process, the cultural dominance of Puritan New England and the belief that the region possessed some sort of internally consistent nature have been challenged. The work being done is important, as it is broadening and enriching our understanding of the colonies' and country's past. It seems unfortunate, though, that scholars like John McWilliams, who continue to find themselves drawn to the concerns of northeastern male writers of Puritan persuasion, now feel pressured to account for why they want to labor in territory that many consider "as overworked, as exhausted, as a New England upland farm during the 1890s" (1). The assumption that we have excavated all we can from the New England Puritan past is, of course, an old and erroneous one. Even back in the 1920s, advisors warned Perry Miller that the field was depleted and only chaff remained. Fortunately, both Miller and McWilliams trusted their sense that wheat remained and there was more tilling to be done.

In his meticulously researched new book, McWilliams offers a groundbreaking analysis of what happens to the idea of Puritan New England over the course of two hundred and forty years, paying special attention to the ways in which crises brought about both the development and eventual decline of the region's cultural identity. In part 1, "Plantation and Settlement," he examines the Starving Time, the crisis involving Thomas Morton [End Page 569] and the Merry Mount community, and the Antinomian Controversy. Part 2, "Time of Troubles," is devoted to exploring King Philip's War, pre-Revolutionary uprisings against royally appointed officials, and the Salem witchcraft trials. In part 3, "Revolution," he engages in a careful study of New England's acts of resistance during the 1760s and 1770s, the revolution itself, and the abolitionist movement. As the subtitle of New England's Crises and Cultural Memory suggests, McWilliams brings together literary, political, historical, and religious perspectives on these nine moments of crisis. The significance of the book emerges from McWilliams's manner of putting early accounts of the conflicts into dialogue with later reinterpretations of them. This approach distinguishes his work from Miller's in that it enables him to trace how ideas about New England and its brand of Puritanism were continually being modified in order to meet the interpretative and cultural needs of each generation.

One might expect a work with such a broad scope to lapse into generalization, but McWilliams demonstrates remarkable patience with his material and treats each crisis in a comprehensive manner. The thoroughness of New England's Crises and Cultural Memory does, however, make it next to impossible to offer concise summarization of each part of the book. Since the strength of his study derives from his attention to detail, I want to provide an overview of how he treats one early crisis, the Antinomian Controversy, and then turn to his fascinating account of how New Englanders in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reacted to their fading significance in the new republic.

McWilliams sees the Antinomian Controversy as having played an instrumental role in the development of a more formalized regional identity. Unlike many scholars of American antinomianism, McWilliams is not content to focus on just one particular aspect of the conflict. Instead, he situates the crisis within its larger cultural context and observes that the issues being debated were ones that "affected every aspect of the Commonwealth's newly evolving culture: the inner spirit and public conduct of a New England Christian, how to determine qualifications for church membership, the need for unanimity among churches . . . , adjusting the power of church versus state, the place of new merchants among an empowered landed class, [and] setting the limits of women...

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