New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century / Edition 1

by Virginia DeJohn Anderson

Overview

Through analyses of the process of migration and settlement and of the symbolic meaning that participants attached to their experiences, the book tells the story of New England's origins as one of dynamism and change. Focusing on the lives of nearly 700 emigrants, the narrative examines such topics as the settlers' motives for leaving England, their experience of the voyage, their patterns of settlement in the New World, and their search for economic security in a new land. The descendants of the founders erected the story of their "great" migration into early British America's only effective foundation myth—a record of achievement that succeeding generations could never match. Rich in detail and insight, this exploration of New England's founding examines both the lives of ordinary people and the transcendent meanings that those lives ultimately acquired.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521447645
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/27/1992
Series:	Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.55(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Decision; 2. Passage; 3. Transplantation; 4. Competency; 5. Legacy; Appendix; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"As the title suggests, this is a scholarly book, yet there's much here to interest general readers of American history. Anderson's mission is to examine the reasons for the stability of early New England." Providence Journal

"Historian Virginia DeJohn Anderson studied 693 settlers who came here on seven ships between 1635 and 1638... in careful prose, Anderson refracts their psychological makeup in a way that makes them understandable to us." The Boston Globe

"...besides being beautifully written, the book is both original and highly useful in linking so many issues so intelligently through collective biography....It is an apt depiction of the socioeconomic context within which much of the cultural and intellectual drama of New England was played." Richard P. Gildrie, William and Mary Quarterly

From the Publisher