William Bradford's Books: Of Plimmoth Plantation and the Printed Word

by Douglas Anderson

Overview

Widely regarded as the most important narrative of seventeenth-century New England, William Bradford's Of Plimmoth Plantation is one of the founding
documents of American literature and history. In William Bradford's Books this portrait of the religious dissenters who emigrated from the Netherlands to New England in 1620 receives perhaps its sharpest textual analysis to date—and the first since that of Samuel Eliot Morison two generations ago. Far from the gloomy elegy that many readers find, Bradford's history, argues Douglas Anderson, demonstrates remarkable ambition and subtle grace, as it contemplates the adaptive success of a small community of religious exiles. Anderson offers fresh literary and historical accounts of Bradford's accomplishment, exploring the context and the form in which the author intended his book to be read.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801870743
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	01/08/2003
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.02(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Douglas Anderson is the Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia and the author of several books, including The Radical Enlightenments of Benjamin Franklin, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Operations of Print
Chapter 1. Words and Wind
Chapter 2. Such Neighbors and Brethren As We Are
Chapter 3. Artificial Persons
Chapter 4. Here Is the Miserablest Time
Chapter 5. Controller of Stories
Conclusion: The High Preserver of Men
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Michael McGiffert

Anderson's skilled and subtle take on a classic text and its contexts reconstructs our image of Bradford's mental world. Catching the ebb tide of postmodernism, this keen work furnishes a model for future literary-historical scholarship.

— Michael McGiffert, Editor Emeritus, William and Mary Quarterly

From the Publisher

Anderson's skilled and subtle take on a classic text and its contexts reconstructs our image of Bradford's mental world. Catching the ebb tide of postmodernism, this keen work furnishes a model for future literary-historical scholarship.
—Michael McGiffert, Editor Emeritus, William and Mary Quarterly

Editorial Reviews

Meticulously researched and eloquently argued . . . This lovingly fashioned biography of the first American history book affirms the fundamental responsibilities of good history writing.
—Richard J. Bell, New England Quarterly

The extraordinary care with which Anderson has crafted his own book can be seen as a kind of homage to its subject . . . William Bradford's Books is in many ways an unexpectedly rewarding read and a major contribution to early American studies. It is a text that literary critics and historians are both likely to engage with and to rely on for a long time to come and that is poised to change forever how Of Plimmoth Plantation is read and taught.
—Michelle Burnham, William and Mary Quarterly

A model of close reading based on strategies that few if any early Americanists have employed.
—David D. Hall, Common-Place

A substantial analysis of the form and content of Bradford's history of Plymouth studied against the era's reading practices, publishing conventions, and scriptural interpretations . . . By making sense of Bradford's manuscript, Anderson brings Bradford himself closer.
—Mark Noll, First Things

The publication of Douglas Anderson's fine book seems, well, providential, and one hopes that it finds the audience that it so richly deserves.
—David Read, American Historical Review

Anderson himself has written a book that presents Bradford's work in equally splendid and unexpected ways, restoring complexity and immediacy to a volume that we thought we knew all along. . . It is a rare accomplishment to bring readers back to a text as canonical as Of Plimmouth Plantation in a new way.
—Kathleen Donegan, Early American Literature

Through Anderson's rich and multifaceted portrait . . . the reader ultimately re-experiences the full meaning of Bradford's attempt to capture the Puritan experience in the New World.
—Oliver Scheiding, Amerikastudien / American Studies

Rarely can a scholar so thoroughly resituate such a foundational work as William Bradford's history as Anderson does here.
—Julie Sievers, Libraries and Culture

From the Publisher

Anderson himself has written a book that presents Bradford's work in equally splendid and unexpected ways, restoring complexity and immediacy to a volume that we thought we knew all along. . . It is a rare accomplishment to bring readers back to a text as canonical as Of Plimmouth Plantation in a new way.

Early American Literature - Kathleen Donegan

A substantial analysis of the form and content of Bradford's history of Plymouth studied against the era's reading practices, publishing conventions, and scriptural interpretations . . . By making sense of Bradford's manuscript, Anderson brings Bradford himself closer.

First Things - Mark Noll

A model of close reading based on strategies that few if any early Americanists have employed.

Common-Place - David D. Hall

The publication of Douglas Anderson's fine book seems, well, providential, and one hopes that it finds the audience that it so richly deserves.

American Historical Review - David Read

Meticulously researched and eloquently argued . . . This lovingly fashioned biography of the first American history book affirms the fundamental responsibilities of good history writing.

New England Quarterly - Richard J. Bell

Through Anderson's rich and multifaceted portrait . . . the reader ultimately re-experiences the full meaning of Bradford's attempt to capture the Puritan experience in the New World.

Amerikastudien / American Studies - Oliver Scheiding

Rarely can a scholar so thoroughly resituate such a foundational work as William Bradford's history as Anderson does here.

Libraries and Culture - Julie Sievers

The extraordinary care with which Anderson has crafted his own book can be seen as a kind of homage to its subject . . . William Bradford's Books is in many ways an unexpectedly rewarding read and a major contribution to early American studies. It is a text that literary critics and historians are both likely to engage with and to rely on for a long time to come and that is poised to change forever how Of Plimmoth Plantation is read and taught.

William and Mary Quarterly - Michelle Burnham

Rarely can a scholar so thoroughly resituate such a foundational work as William Bradford's history as Anderson does here.

— Julie Sievers

Libraries and Culture

Through Anderson's rich and multifaceted portrait... the reader ultimately re-experiences the full meaning of Bradford's attempt to capture the Puritan experience in the New World.

— Oliver Scheiding

Amerikastudien / American Studies

Anderson himself has written a book that presents Bradford's work in equally splendid and unexpected ways, restoring complexity and immediacy to a volume that we thought we knew all along... It is a rare accomplishment to bring readers back to a text as canonical as Of Plimmouth Plantation in a new way.

— Kathleen Donegan

Early American Literature

The publication of Douglas Anderson's fine book seems, well, providential, and one hopes that it finds the audience that it so richly deserves.

— David Read

American Historical Review

A substantial analysis of the form and content of Bradford's history of Plymouth studied against the era's reading practices, publishing conventions, and scriptural interpretations... By making sense of Bradford's manuscript, Anderson brings Bradford himself closer.

— Mark Noll

First Things

A model of close reading based on strategies that few if any early Americanists have employed.

— David D. Hall

Common-Place

The extraordinary care with which Anderson has crafted his own book can be seen as a kind of homage to its subject... William Bradford's Books is in many ways an unexpectedly rewarding read and a major contribution to early American studies. It is a text that literary critics and historians are both likely to engage with and to rely on for a long time to come and that is poised to change forever how Of Plimmoth Plantation is read and taught.

— Michelle Burnham

William and Mary Quarterly

Meticulously researched and eloquently argued... This lovingly fashioned biography of the first American history book affirms the fundamental responsibilities of good history writing.

— Richard J. Bell

New England Quarterly