Prologue

Summary

The Prologue orients readers to the classic tradition of American exceptionalism based in the Pilgrims and puritans, explaining how that tradition arose and to what effect. Sketching the development of a “puritan origins” thesis from the early republic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the prologue ends in 1990, when a recognizable shift in puritan studies gained momentum. The Prologue gives readers a sense of how American collective memory built a story of noble Pilgrims fleeing persecution and establishing religious freedom on American shores. Pilgrim anniversaries of Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower landing were traditionally meant to celebrate and venerate an exceptional story of America rooted in New England and attributed to the singular virtues and values of the puritans. Yet even when scholars, politicians, pundits, and commentators turned against the puritans and despised them for various reasons, they still wrote stories in which the puritans were held responsible for all that the United States had become. Whether in love or hatred, in both praise and condemnation, the “puritan origins” thesis guided a great deal of American puritan studies throughout the twentieth century.