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.
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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.
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