The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts

By Darren M. Staloff

Book Overview

A radical new interpretation of the political and intellectual history of Puritan Massachusetts, The Making of an American Thinking Class envisions the Bay colony as a seventeenth century one-party state, where congregations served as ideological 'cells' and authority was restricted to an educated elite of ministers and magistrates. From there Staloff offers a broadened conception of the interstices of political, social, and intellectual authority in Puritan Massachusetts and beyond, arguing that ideologies, as well as ideological politics, are produced by self-conscious, and often class-conscious, thinkers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195149823
• ISBN13: 9780195149821
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.9"