The Beginnings of New England
Puritan Society, Colonial Self-Government, and the Origins of American Liberty in Seventeenth-Century New EnglandBy John Fiske
Length7h 42m
About this audiobook
In The Beginnings of New England, John Fiske traces the religious, political, and social formation of New England from the Puritan migration and the founding of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay through the development of colonial institutions. He emphasizes the town meeting, local self-government, and the gradual emergence of representative principles, while also examining conflicts over religious authority, dissent, and relations with Indigenous peoples. Written in an accessible yet learned narrative style, the book belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of national history: it combines archival reconstruction with a confident interpretation of colonial experience as a formative stage in American democracy, revealing both the explanatory power and the progressive assumptions of that tradition. Fiske was a prominent American historian and philosopher whose intellectual formation was shaped by evolutionary thought, including the influence of Herbert Spencer. His interest in the long development of institutions led him to interpret American history as a process in which inherited English practices were transformed under new conditions. The book reflects his broader effort to give the United States a coherent historical genealogy, linking Puritan ideals, communal governance, and later republican politics. His lectures and historical writings made complex scholarship widely available to educated general readers. Readers interested in colonial America, Puritanism, the origins of American political culture, or the nineteenth-century writing of history will find this book especially rewarding. It should be read both as a substantial account of New England's beginnings and as a revealing document of the era that produced it. Fiske's lucid prose, broad synthesis, and attention to institutional development make the work an engaging introduction, while its interpretive limitations invite thoughtful critical reflection.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (98)
Includes LibraryThing, Goodreads, Amazon
GenreHistory
Length7 hrs 42 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 23, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Indian Captive (Annotated)
2I DEDICATE THIS BOOK.
3PREFACE.
4DETAILED CONTENTS CONTENTS.
5CHAPTER I. — THE ROMAN IDEA AND THE ENGLISH IDEA.
Show all chaptersShow less
6CHAPTER II. — THE PURITAN EXODUS.
7CHAPTER III. — THE PLANTING OF NEW ENGLAND.
8CHAPTER IV. — THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY.
9CHAPTER V. — KING PHILIP'S WAR.
10CHAPTER VI. — THE TYRANNY OF ANDROS.
More from John Fiske
The American Revolution (Vol. 1&2) (Annotated)John Fiske19h 53m3.5 (133)$2 · $0.00
The Age of Revolution: History of the American & French Revolution (Vol. 1&2) (Annotated)John Fiske, Charles Downer Hazen29h 17m$2 · $0.00
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Complete Edition In 2 Volumes) (Annotated)John Fiske19h 51m4.2 (64)$2 · $0.00
The American Revolution & The French Revolution (Annotated)John Fiske, Charles Downer Hazen29h 17m$2 · $0.00
Myths and Myth-MakersJohn Fiske8h 49m3.5 (148)$1 · $0.00
The Critical Period of American HistoryJohn Fiske8h 55m4.0 (276)$1 · $0.00
The Beginnings of New EnglandJohn Fiske8h 20m4.0 (27)$1 · $0.00
The American Revolution (Vol. 1&2)John Fiske20h 52m3.7 (160)$1 · $0.00
The American & The French RevolutionJohn Fiske, Charles Downer Hazen29h 9m$2 · $0.00
The History of American & French RevolutionJohn Fiske, Charles Downer Hazen29h 3m$1 · $0.00
Life EverlastingJohn Fiske8m$1 · $0.00
The Idea of God as Affected by Modern KnowledgeJohn Fiske3h 18m3.9 (37)$2 · $0.00
The American Revolution & The French RevolutionJohn Fiske, Charles Downer Hazen28h 23m$1 · $0.00
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Complete Edition In 2 Volumes)John Fiske21h 23m4.0 (231)$1 · $0.00
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m4.7 (589)$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 9m4.8 (150)$0.99 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m4.6 (2.3K)$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
The Red Record (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett5h 19m4.8 (102)$0.99 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m4.6 (159.1K)$15
EnduranceAlfred Lansing6h 1m4.6 (40.8K)$20
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
You may also like
Old Times in the Colonies (Illustrated Edition)Charles Carleton Coffin12h 35m4.1 (295)$2 · $0.00
The Story of MankindHendrik Willem van Loon14h 3m3.6 (6K)$25
UnleashedBoris Johnson25h 41m4.1 (4.2K)$53 · $0.00
The Autobiographical WorksGeorge Orwell35h 35m4.5 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Paradox of JamestownChristopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier1h 43m4.1 (476)$15
My Diary – North and South (Vol. 1&2)William Howard Russell27h 32m4.0 (335)$1 · $0.00
Life of George Washington (Illustrated)Washington Irving34h 43m4.2 (627)$2 · $0.00
History of the American Frontier 1763–1893Frederic L. Paxson24h 55m3.8 (325)$30
Old Times in the ColoniesCharles Carleton Coffin12h 47m4.2 (182)$0.99 · $0.00
Pictures of Southern Life, Social, Political, and MilitarySir William Howard Russell7h 22m$2.30
The History of Ballarat, from the First Pastoral Settlement to the Present TimeWilliam Bramwell Withers16h 18m$2 · $0.00
Travels in Morocco (Vol. 1&2) (Annotated)James Richardson11h 9m$0.99 · $0.00
History of the Philippine Islands (Vol. 1&2)Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga11h 47m$1 · $0.00
Pilgrims and PuritansChristopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier1h 57m3.9 (570)$15
The Ultimate Western CollectionMark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, Max Brand, James Oliver Curwood, B. M. Bower, Zane Grey, Jackson Gregory, Jack London, William MacLeod Raine, William Patterson White, Rex Beach, Emerson Hough, Will Lillibridge, Andy Adams, Bret Harte, Owen Wister, Washington Irving, Willa Cather, O. Henry, Grace Livingston Hill, Charles King, Charles Alden Seltzer, Stephen Crane, Dane Coolidge, Marah Ellis Ryan, Francis William Sullivan, Frederic Homer Balch, Frederic Remington, Robert W. Chambers, Forrestine C. Hooker, James B. Hendryx, Frank H. Spearman, J. Allan Dunn, Ann S. Stephens, Robert E. Howard, Clarence E. Mulford, R.M. Ballantyne, Charles Siringo, Isabel E. Ostrander, Frederic Logan Paxson1014h 52m4.3 (135)$1 · $0.00
Competing for the Global SouthFilippo Fasulo, Nicola Missaglia3h 54m$8 · $0.00
The Cape and the Kaffirs: A Diary of Five Years' Residence in KaffirlandMrs. Ward11h 2m$2 · $0.00
My Diary – North and South (Vol. 1&2) (Annotated)William Howard Russell27h 31m4.3 (24)$2 · $0.00
The Great Boer WarArthur Conan Doyle24h 17m3.5 (308)$0.60 · $0.00
Canada and the StatesE. W. Sir Watkin12h 32m$2 · $0.00