American Jezebel : The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Nonfiction
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Nonfiction
Book Type: Hardcover
Pasted from Amazon:
82 of 89 people found the following review helpful
By Beacon .... July 15, 2007
I'm mystified by the rave reviews here. Hutchinson is indeed a fascinating figure, but LaPlante's oddly-arranged book obscures more than it illuminates. LaPlante presents Hutchinson as a proto-feminist rather than a zealous religious dissident. Although LaPlante acknowledges that Hutchinson exhibited as much moral certitude as her prosecutors -- she believed, for example, that she could personally identify those chosen for salvation by God -- most of the book either downplays the significance of theological dispute in favor of gender politics (suggesting, e.g., that John Winthrop was principally motivated by a desire to keep women in their place), or twists itself into knots trying to recast arch-Calvinist Antinomianism as a progressive movement. Incredibly, there is no serious discussion of theology until 50 pages into the book.
Gender is naturally central to this story. After all, its protagonist is a woman in seventeenth century Boston who brazenly challenged the city's Cambridge-educated male elite. But the reason for Hutchinson's banishment -- like that of the more influential and sophisticated Roger Williams a few years earlier -- was theological, and the faith of Hutchinson and her slippery mentor John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather) was no more rational and no less fanatical than that of John Winthrop, whose conciliatory tendencies actually marked him as a rather moderate fellow by Puritan standards. Unlike Williams, whose radical separatism led him to become one of the first notable advocates of religious freedom, Hutchinson was primarily concerned not with political liberty but with denouncing those who she believed to be under a "covenant of works." This category included all the ministers in Massachusetts except for Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright.
LaPlante does not seem to be an expert on Puritan New England, and she has trouble with theology. To give one example, she employs "orthodox" as a general term of abuse -- using it at one point to describe the Puritans' Anglican opponents in England, and at others to describe the Puritan leadership in Boston. Like Howard Zinn, who blurbs the book, she seems to view underdog status as an indication of righteousness. A reader who is more interested in ideas than identity politics will note that Hutchinson's Antinomian theology was no more enlightened than that of her "orthodox" enemies; she was ahead of her time only in her belief that women are as able to interpret scripture as men (no small matter), and in her relatively humane views regarding Native Americans (which she shared with Williams and Samuel Sewall, among others).
Of course, historical figures should not be chastised for every transgression against contemporary sensibilities. But as someone with no dog in the fight between the varieties of seventeenth century English Protestantism, I was irritated by LaPlante's verbal gymnastics on behalf of her ancestor -- especially after she declares in the intro that her work will avoid the "exaltation" found elsewhere. While the reader gets some sense of Hutchinson's admirable qualities, including her sparkling intelligence and stubborn bravery, critical analysis is limited to the occasional throw-away sentence, and the book contains little psychological insight. LaPlante has thus transformed a strange charismatic figure into a cardboard cutout. LaPlante is not, thankfully, the sort of historian who simply dismisses all Puritans as benighted and backwards, but she makes an equally serious mistake in attempting to transform a proud, complex, and extraordinarily devout woman into a digestible hero for contemporary readers.
Three final points: (1) LaPlante has a habit of substituting her own language for that of her subjects, making it hard to determine who is saying what. Quotes sometimes end abruptly, replaced by LaPlante's paraphrasing. I suspected at several points that her summaries were generous to Hutchinson (facilitating Hutchinson's transformation into a Puritan Susan B. Anthony), and less than charitable to her prosecutors. The book is at its best when LaPlante isn't speaking at all, since her commentary adds little to the natural drama. (2) The general tenor of the book is hagiographic. Many of the quotes that LaPlante culls from other histories of the era seem to have been included only because they are complimentary of Hutchinson. LaPlante defends her subject in an almost lawerly fashion, informing us, for example, that "Harvard University" credits Hutchinson with its founding (in fact, one Harvard professor!), and that Hutchinson founded Rhode Island (only technically true, since Williams had established Providence Plantations a year earlier). These are minor details, but combined with the suspicious paraphrasing, they undermined my trust in the author's intentions. An honest defense of Hutchinson would have been fine, but this book seems to lionize its subject using sleight of hand. (3) I learned some things from "American Jezebel" that I had not found in other books on this period. Particularly interesting were LaPlante's discussions of Lincolnshire and Boston, England.
For better books on pre-Revolutionary New England, I recommend Philbrick's Mayflower, Morgan's Puritan Dilemma (on Winthrop), Gaustad's Roger Williams, Lepore's The Name of War (flawed, but erudite and beautifully written), and Richard Francis' wonderful book on Samuel Sewall. American Jezebel isn't worthless, and may be a decent intro to this subject for younger readers, but it would be unfortunate if anyone picked up their whole education on the Puritans here -- as many of the other Amazon reviewers seem to have done.
82 of 89 people found the following review helpful
By Beacon .... July 15, 2007
I'm mystified by the rave reviews here. Hutchinson is indeed a fascinating figure, but LaPlante's oddly-arranged book obscures more than it illuminates. LaPlante presents Hutchinson as a proto-feminist rather than a zealous religious dissident. Although LaPlante acknowledges that Hutchinson exhibited as much moral certitude as her prosecutors -- she believed, for example, that she could personally identify those chosen for salvation by God -- most of the book either downplays the significance of theological dispute in favor of gender politics (suggesting, e.g., that John Winthrop was principally motivated by a desire to keep women in their place), or twists itself into knots trying to recast arch-Calvinist Antinomianism as a progressive movement. Incredibly, there is no serious discussion of theology until 50 pages into the book.
Gender is naturally central to this story. After all, its protagonist is a woman in seventeenth century Boston who brazenly challenged the city's Cambridge-educated male elite. But the reason for Hutchinson's banishment -- like that of the more influential and sophisticated Roger Williams a few years earlier -- was theological, and the faith of Hutchinson and her slippery mentor John Cotton (grandfather of Cotton Mather) was no more rational and no less fanatical than that of John Winthrop, whose conciliatory tendencies actually marked him as a rather moderate fellow by Puritan standards. Unlike Williams, whose radical separatism led him to become one of the first notable advocates of religious freedom, Hutchinson was primarily concerned not with political liberty but with denouncing those who she believed to be under a "covenant of works." This category included all the ministers in Massachusetts except for Cotton and her brother-in-law, John Wheelwright.
LaPlante does not seem to be an expert on Puritan New England, and she has trouble with theology. To give one example, she employs "orthodox" as a general term of abuse -- using it at one point to describe the Puritans' Anglican opponents in England, and at others to describe the Puritan leadership in Boston. Like Howard Zinn, who blurbs the book, she seems to view underdog status as an indication of righteousness. A reader who is more interested in ideas than identity politics will note that Hutchinson's Antinomian theology was no more enlightened than that of her "orthodox" enemies; she was ahead of her time only in her belief that women are as able to interpret scripture as men (no small matter), and in her relatively humane views regarding Native Americans (which she shared with Williams and Samuel Sewall, among others).
Of course, historical figures should not be chastised for every transgression against contemporary sensibilities. But as someone with no dog in the fight between the varieties of seventeenth century English Protestantism, I was irritated by LaPlante's verbal gymnastics on behalf of her ancestor -- especially after she declares in the intro that her work will avoid the "exaltation" found elsewhere. While the reader gets some sense of Hutchinson's admirable qualities, including her sparkling intelligence and stubborn bravery, critical analysis is limited to the occasional throw-away sentence, and the book contains little psychological insight. LaPlante has thus transformed a strange charismatic figure into a cardboard cutout. LaPlante is not, thankfully, the sort of historian who simply dismisses all Puritans as benighted and backwards, but she makes an equally serious mistake in attempting to transform a proud, complex, and extraordinarily devout woman into a digestible hero for contemporary readers.
Three final points: (1) LaPlante has a habit of substituting her own language for that of her subjects, making it hard to determine who is saying what. Quotes sometimes end abruptly, replaced by LaPlante's paraphrasing. I suspected at several points that her summaries were generous to Hutchinson (facilitating Hutchinson's transformation into a Puritan Susan B. Anthony), and less than charitable to her prosecutors. The book is at its best when LaPlante isn't speaking at all, since her commentary adds little to the natural drama. (2) The general tenor of the book is hagiographic. Many of the quotes that LaPlante culls from other histories of the era seem to have been included only because they are complimentary of Hutchinson. LaPlante defends her subject in an almost lawerly fashion, informing us, for example, that "Harvard University" credits Hutchinson with its founding (in fact, one Harvard professor!), and that Hutchinson founded Rhode Island (only technically true, since Williams had established Providence Plantations a year earlier). These are minor details, but combined with the suspicious paraphrasing, they undermined my trust in the author's intentions. An honest defense of Hutchinson would have been fine, but this book seems to lionize its subject using sleight of hand. (3) I learned some things from "American Jezebel" that I had not found in other books on this period. Particularly interesting were LaPlante's discussions of Lincolnshire and Boston, England.
For better books on pre-Revolutionary New England, I recommend Philbrick's Mayflower, Morgan's Puritan Dilemma (on Winthrop), Gaustad's Roger Williams, Lepore's The Name of War (flawed, but erudite and beautifully written), and Richard Francis' wonderful book on Samuel Sewall. American Jezebel isn't worthless, and may be a decent intro to this subject for younger readers, but it would be unfortunate if anyone picked up their whole education on the Puritans here -- as many of the other Amazon reviewers seem to have done.
