Magnalia Christi Americana (Masterplots, Definitive Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Cotton Mather
- First Published: 1702
- Type of Work: History
- Time of Work: 1620-1698
- Setting: New England
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Colonies or colonization, Sin or Original sin, New England, Seventeenth century, Christianity, Good and evil, Witches or witchcraft, Clergy, Puritans or Puritanism
- Locales: New England
Critical Evaluation:
Cotton Mather’s MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA; OR THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FROM ITS FIRST PLANTING, IN THE YEAR 1620, UNTO THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1698 is commonly referred to, and dismissed, as a fairly authoritative and substantial picture of the Puritan theocracy in New England. It is a history of Puritanism in the New World and much of it is true; but it is the product of a dogmatic, neurotic, tyrannical clergyman who failed to discriminate between facts and legends, the laws and the superstitions, of the early colonial period....
[The entire page is 1679 words long]
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