The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: The Fiance
Review: Although this book was required text, and I am usually just a reader of novels, the book held my attention. Slow read but still rather good for being required. It really makes Withrop out like a king and mentions many things I would have never thought about..

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Summary: Classic Morgan
Review: Edmund Morgan was an excellent writer, and it shows through in this book.

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Summary: Put on your pajamas and grab a pillow
Review: Having trouble sleeping? If so, I highly suggest you pick up Edmund Morgan's Puritan Dilemma. This book should be perscribed by doctors nationwide to help cure insomnia. I was forced to read this book for an American history course and I am so happy that I have finally completed it. It's not that the book was long (only 205 pages) it was just very drawn out. The essential information of the book could have easily been summed up in about 30 pages. The book did have its moments, but overall it was a major disappointment. If you are thinking of picking up this book for personal reading, please think again. Otherwise you will definitely need a large pot of coffee to keep your eyes open through this one!

Rating:
Summary: Still excellent
Review: I read this book many years ago for an American Literature class and am now rereading it for an American History class. I enjoyed it the first time and am enjoying it now. The writing is fluid, entertaining; the points made are profound. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Winthrop and the early Puritan immigrants--a quick, pleasurable read.

Rating:
Summary: warning: read at your own risk!
Review: I read this for my M.A. in History, now I know why I never read it as a undergrad. It is a bit drawn out. I like Morgan, he is very interesting and I would say the same thing about Winthrop. But like Morgan sometimes does, he draws out Winthrop's story so much that you begin to forget what the original thesis was, a people striving to be perfect in an imperfect world. Morgan's thesis would have worked much more effectively as a Journal Article in the Journal of New England History. Although, Morgan's thesis might have been ground breaking in the 1960's, it is hardly earth shattering today. I didn't feel anymore educated about Puritans than I was before. It is a good book to reflect on how historians thought about 17th century New England before the 1960's but I didn't see much use for it beyond that. Morgan has made a fine argument, it is just too bad that it was so long winded that it could have been summed up in a journal entry.

Rating:
Summary: boring and overwellming usage of big lengthy words
Review: I think the book was well over done. It could have been summed up in much simpler and easier terms than it was. The book did give great depth on the dilemma that the purtitans had on their travel to and in the New England colonies

Rating:
Summary: Excellent use of biography to examine larger issues
Review: One of Edmund Morgan's most enduring works, The Puritan Dilemma, published in 1962, is still a good starting point for understanding the motivations behind Puritan migration to America and the ideological and political difficulties they faced once they arrived. It was Winthrop who declared that the new colony would be as a city on a hill, a new example of community for the rest of the western world. Morgan shows that this statement masks the Puritans' somewhat melancholy desertion of the political revolution brewing back in England, and examines what the search for true community cost in terms of individual freedom as well. The contradictions in Winthrop himself mirror those of the entire Puritan colony and by extension America: what does freedom mean, and what is the proper role of the individual in society? How could a group looking for freedom of worship cast Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams out of their society? Morgan examined the issue of freedom many times, most definitively in American Slavery--American Freedom, but this short biography lays bare fundamental American problems with grace, concision, and a consistent point of view that debunks our culture's simplistic use of the "puritan" label. An intellectual bargain at only 200 pages.

Rating:
Summary: Overly long, Over written...
Review: the book was much too lengthy, it could've been summed up simply in one chapter. Secondly, it doesn't read well- theres no character development at all. I guarantee you'll struggle through this book.

Rating:
Summary: Still excellent
Review: The impact of the Puritans on America is fascinating. The world has thrown millions of immigrants onto American shores over the centuries, but those millions have never quite diluted out the foundational impact of those 20,000 that came during the great migration. Regrettably, most Americans are not born again, but because the founders of New England were biblically minded people, the United States has inherited the ideals of family values, education, care for the less fortunate, accountability in governnment, liberty of conscience, reward for hard work and honest business dealings. Among the nations, we still stand as a beacon of hope because of these ideals. God used a few people fully devoted to His Word to do marvelous works and a wonder.
How exciting it is to watch the mind of Winthrop wrestle with the same issues that modern Christians wrestle with-how to best be salt and light TO the world without being OF the world. His response was to build a city on a hill, a New Jerusalem, a holy priesthood--and the world has never been the same.

Rating:
Summary: A City on a Hill Cannot be Hidden
Review: The impact of the Puritans on America is fascinating. The world has thrown millions of immigrants onto American shores over the centuries, but those millions have never quite diluted out the foundational impact of those 20,000 that came during the great migration. Regrettably, most Americans are not born again, but because the founders of New England were biblically minded people, the United States has inherited the ideals of family values, education, care for the less fortunate, accountability in governnment, liberty of conscience, reward for hard work and honest business dealings. Among the nations, we still stand as a beacon of hope because of these ideals. God used a few people fully devoted to His Word to do marvelous works and a wonder.
How exciting it is to watch the mind of Winthrop wrestle with the same issues that modern Christians wrestle with-how to best be salt and light TO the world without being OF the world. His response was to build a city on a hill, a New Jerusalem, a holy priesthood--and the world has never been the same.