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

Description

Widely regarded as the most important narrative of 17th-century New England, William Bradford’s “Of Plimmoth Plantation” is one of the founding documents of American literature and history. In this study, this portrait of the religious dissenters who emigrated from the Netherlands to New England in 1620 receives sharp textual analysis. 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.

Douglas Anderson is the Sterling Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia. He is the author of A House Undivided: Domesticity and Community in American Literature and The Radical Enlightenments of Benjamin Franklin, the latter available from Johns Hopkins.