An Actual Report of a Book - The Puritan Dilemma

The Puritan Dilemma The Story of John Winthrop – Second Edition Edited by: Oscar Hanlin
History 190 pages, 9th grade reading level, printed 1999

First we would like to say that we picked this book for part of our Thanksgiving edition of W.N.B.N.I. And that we know that there is a difference between Puritans and Pilgrims. Pilgrims believed that the Church of England was no longer a true church and separated themselves from it in order to create a “pure” church. First by leaving England for Holland then by coming to the new world. Puritans were not separatist (at least in Massachusetts Bay) and came to America in order to create the closest to perfect society possible and did not try to sever connections with England, and in fact worked to reform England using proper governmental channels. But there is only so much interesting things about the Puritans and so we will talk about all of colonial America (or at least most well known groups.) That being said here is our report.

This book is a great look into the puritan mindset using the works of one of their most important leaders in America. It uses lots of original sources which can make the reading hard (their was not the standardized spelling that we us today.) But it also lets the people talk for themselves, instead of only having the author’s and other authors’ thoughts. It is both a good look of Puritanism and how America started out. It also talks in-depth about such famous people in colonial history as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Cotton Mather. And it shows the dichotomy of Puritanism that only helped to give it the negative connotations it has today. It was a religion where one was to spend their life seeking salvation, but as strict Calvinist believed that one would only be saved if God had predestined it. One was to try to not sin, while believing it was impossible to do anything but sinful things. One was to work hard, but not enjoy the fruits of ones labor too much. One believed that God would punish countries that didn’t obey Him, but one had to obey the king. In short one could easily see why puritans aren’t known for being happy go lucky people. But this book also shows then to not be as somber as we think of them. They did enjoy some pleasures like hunting, feasting, and drinking in moderation.
For more information on Puritans click here.