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The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts
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.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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May 8, 2011
The synopsis covers the main thesis of the book well so there's no need to repeat it. This book is truly an impressive effort of both scholarly research and creativity. Few subjects in early America have been mined as deeply in the last 75 years or so as Puritanism and Puritan New England. Many of the field's luminaries such as Perry Miller and Edmund Morgan have tackled all facets of Puritan life from theology to family life. Nevertheless, through an excitingly creative reinterpretation of the political and cultural dynamic of Massachusetts, Staloff brings fresh life to a well-worn topic. His analytic of "cultural domination" is sustained by his characterization of the ministers as the "vanguard intellectuals" and the magistrates as the "intelligentsia." Staloff's approach is a synthesis of both intellectual history and the social science of intellectuals and their roles in society.
For all the book's boldness and creativity, one should be warned that it is a historical monograph. As such, those accustomed to reading David McCullough or Joseph Ellis will likely find the academic style of the writing challenging. Though it covers all the major (and many minor) events of early Massachusetts, it is not an introductory "history of Puritan Massachusetts" and is best enjoyed by someone with at least a cursory knowledge of the characters and events treated. At the same time, this is the type of book from which you get out of it what you put into it.
That said, this is history, especially intellectual history at its best. Many other Puritan scholars will disagree with Staloff's interpretation, but this is an inevitable consequence of being bold enough and creative enough to put forth a new conception of politics and culture in early Puritan Massachusetts.
For all the book's boldness and creativity, one should be warned that it is a historical monograph. As such, those accustomed to reading David McCullough or Joseph Ellis will likely find the academic style of the writing challenging. Though it covers all the major (and many minor) events of early Massachusetts, it is not an introductory "history of Puritan Massachusetts" and is best enjoyed by someone with at least a cursory knowledge of the characters and events treated. At the same time, this is the type of book from which you get out of it what you put into it.
That said, this is history, especially intellectual history at its best. Many other Puritan scholars will disagree with Staloff's interpretation, but this is an inevitable consequence of being bold enough and creative enough to put forth a new conception of politics and culture in early Puritan Massachusetts.
Displaying 1 of 1 review