The Puritan Origins of the American Self

Bercovitch proves his case that the Boston Puritans set the tone for the American mind, especially its belief that it had a special mission (from God) to create a 'city on a hill' which would redeem the rest of the world, especially decadent Europe. One can hear the same rhetoric from Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and GW Bush. Hence the name 'New' England, to distinguish the colony from bad 'olde' England. Bercovitch shows that Cotton Mather was the first to use the word "America" like we do, as a distinct place populated by people similar but different from Europe. Thus, as early as the 1600's, the colonists were thinking of themselves as Americans, and the split in identity with England would grow only wider, culminating in the inevitable revolution. The reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that Bercovitch claims that Cotton Mather's ideology stretched all the way to RW Emerson. While there may be some external similarities in both stressing the uniqueness of America, the differences between the two are much more prominent. Succinctly, Emerson stood against virtually everything Mather stood for, staunchly denying Mather's Calvinist Christianity, veering past Unitarianism into agnostic pantheism. In the end, Emerson's deconstruction of biblical religion has contributed to the devastation of the 'nation' that Mather knew, one based on Biblical ethics.

Sacvan Bercovitch, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University, presents in this important book an analysis of what he refers to as the "rhetoric of American identity" through the "sources of our obsessive concern with the meaning of America" (p. ix). He uses one central case study to explore this issue, "Nehemias Americanus," Cotton Mather's biography of John Winthrop, first published in 1702. In Winthrop Mather discovered not only "a reliable model of christic identity" (p. 24) but also the "idea of the exemplary American" (p. 35). This is especially because of Winthrop's sense of progress, wherein a "redemptive history" merged personal worth with national mission. Puritans, in Bercovitch's vision, saw themselves as "American Israelites, the sole reliable exegetes of a new, last book of scripture" (p. 113). He argues that Cotton Mather, perhaps the epitome of the Puritan thinker, assigned America the status of a "microcosm of the worldwide work of redemption, and macrocosm of the redemptive work underway in each of its chosen people" (p. 134). This blending of personal story--essentially a spiritual biography--with a national prophecy and mission has been a persistent theme in American history and was first apparent in the writings of the early American Puritans. Bercovitch goes a step further with his analysis, however, by noting that this Puritan approach to personal/national identity provided a handy but complex structure for later generations to think of their place in the world. The result was a belief in human perfectibility and a strong utopian impulse in American intellectual thought and political tradition. From Thomas Jefferson's stirring statement in the Declaration of Independence that people must work to ensure that all receive their unalienable rights of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," to the sense of destiny in recent America, the quest for a better world has been a major subtext of every aspect of American life. As Bercovitch shows, this strain of thought offers a "celebration of the representative self as America, and of the American self as the embodiment of a prophetic universal design" (p. 136). "The Puritan Origins of the American Self" is a difficult reading experience. It uses the language of hermeneutics in its analysis and routinely employs such jargon as "auto-American-autobiography." More importantly, some may appropriately conclude that Bercovitch overstates his case, questioning if the Puritan mindset permeated American character to the degree he claims. Even so, this is required reading for students of early American history. It offers an important interpretation of the intellectual legacy of Puritan thought on the United States.

This book is essential reading for any student of American culture or history. Bercovitch's unigue insight that connects our contemporary culture to our earliest origins will stay with you and illuminate your further reading on any aspect of American life.

This is the single most important study of the formation of "America"--its culture, history and literature. Professor Bercovitch's brilliant analysis of these Puritan texts should be essential reading to anyone even remotely interested in undertanding the often bizarre nature of American society. Working with original Puritan chronicles, diaries and other texts, Bercovitch shows that so much of what we take for granted in this culture has a distinctly Puritan origin. Read this book, and you will never view any aspect of this country the same way again.