Building a New Jerusalem: John Davenport, a Puritan in Three Worlds

Building a New Jerusalem was very interesting in learning about early colonial history through a biographical form . From this vantage point I felt connected to this history and time in a more personal way . The history of John Davenport will not be described in a simplified negative way again! Dr ,Bremer has obviously spent his entire life researching this period and how the history in England and Holland influenced the shaping of New England. The documentation with primary research made this history unquestionably authentic .A book that will be used by scholars for generations to come .An extrorrdinary accomplishment to American history.

An interesting and worthwhile read, but not up to the standard of Bremer's Winthrop biography. Here he feels no need to define terms (some of them not to be found on the internet, or if so with clearly different meaning), and he zigzags back and forth in time, often repeating himself.

THE SCARLET LETTER shapes popular opinion about how Puritanism was practiced. However, Nathaniel Hawthorne depicted a Puritanism that never was. BUILDING A NEW JERUSALEM is nowhere near as much fun to read, but it faithfully traces decisions that had to be made, how they were made, and the satisfactions and disappointments that followed. Read in conjuction with the detailed court records of the colony and other contemporary narratives, the New Haven Colony comes to life.

Thank you, Francis J. Bremer--you've raised the profile of a man long neglected.

Thankd