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Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England

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Book details

  1. Print length
    285 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    September 11, 1996
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.65 x 8.25 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0312161247
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0312161248
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Book overview

'It is rare for a book to be both erudite and amusing at the same time, and this book has succeeded. It has changed the common but unacceptable image of the Puritans as dull, solemn, melancholy misanthropes' - Horton Davies, author of The Worship of the American Puritans For over four centuries, 'puritan' has been a synonym for dour, joyless, and repressed. In Puritans at Play, Bruce Daniels reappraises the accuracy of this grim portrait by examining leisure and recreation in colonial and revolutionary New England. Chapters on music, dinner parties, dancing, sex, alcohol, taverns, and sports are presented in a lively style making this book as entertaining as it is illuminating.
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Product information

Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date September 11, 1996
Edition 1996th
Language ‎English
Print length 285 pages
ISBN-10 0312161247
ISBN-13 978-0312161248
Item Weight ‎12 ounces
Dimensions 5.5 x 0.65 x 8.25 inches
Best Sellers Rank
Customer Reviews 4.6 out of 5 stars 9Reviews

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
9 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

  • Jed Scuggins
    5 out of 5 stars
    Verified Purchase

    Puritans knew how to enjoy life

    Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2018
    Format: Paperback

    Bruce C. Daniels brings the Puritans to life. Rather than see them as dour, gloomy spoil-sports, Daniels

    shows them to be people who enjoyed life and leisure as normal people. The book is a great antidote

    to those who think that our founders were dreary, sour-pusses. Daniels teaches us that they were people

    who were brave, bold and human. Read this book and you will not need to ever apologize for your Puritan

    ancestors again.

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  • T.B.
    5 out of 5 stars
    Verified Purchase

    Interesting and informative

    Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2013
    Format: Paperback

    Remember when you found out your parents actually had, years before you knew them, a very passionate life together?

    I felt somewhat the same about what Daniels told me about our staid ancestors, the Puritans....Maybe Demi Moore wasn't too far off in her rendition of THE SCARLET LETTER!

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  • Nancy L. Bloom
    3 out of 5 stars
    Verified Purchase

    It's a slow scholarly read

    Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2014
    Format: Paperback

    I have read some of this book - it's dense and slow. But I find it useful. I have yet to get to the part of the book that I'm interested in (about dancing) but it is a slow read (not a page turner!)

    One person found this helpful
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  • Haskel Abi
    5 out of 5 stars
    Verified Purchase

    A rare and important book

    Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2017
    Format: Paperback

    A rare and important book to understand that puritans were not a sad believers. They enjoy their faith adn life

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  • Matthew Gunia
    5 out of 5 stars

    Excellent book that humanizes the Puritans

    Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2001
    Format: Paperback

    The popular American view of Puritans is usually something out of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." That is, a bleak, dreary group of religious fanatics who take themselves entirely too seriously. While they did take their religion very seriously (your life on earth does determine whether you will spend eternity in heaven or hell, after all; it's best not to take chances), they did have fun. Bruce Daniels does an excellent job researching the relationship between Puritans and fun: What did they do?; How much time did they spend doing it?; What DIDN'T they do that might surprise us?; Did some groups have fun one way while others had fun another way?; and the all important question for historians: Why?

    Two themes run through Daniels' work: the Puritan ideal with regards to fun is that recreational activities should a) not be sinful b) give one rest so that he or she can serve the Lord more efficiently c) be productive and d) not be an end unto itself. The second theme that runs through "Puritans at Play" is that, while the first generation of Puritans in America came pretty close to this ideal, as the years went on and New England became more heterogeneous, the ideal had great influence, but was viewed more as a guideline for recreation as opposed to a matter so grave as to have long-lasting (read: eternal) implications.

    In this amazingly well-researched book, Daniels analyzed how reading (the ideal recreational activity in Puritan America), music, church related activities, public gatherings (such as public hangings or military training days), dancing, eating, sex, bars, gambling, and sports (among others) fit into both the Puritan ideal and the Puritan reality.

    The beauty of this book is that Daniels tackles such an all-encompasing subject with apparent ease. I feel he has accomplished the goal he mentions in his preface, to write a book suitable for both the serious scholar and the recreational historian (although my one complaint is that his first chapter made for dry, difficult reading). From Chapter Two on, Daniels introduces the reader to Puritans on their own ground, always making sure to put things in a cultural context. I would definately recommend it to fellow amateur historians.

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  • Toni K. Kief
    4 out of 5 stars

    Tells a Deeper Story

    Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2019
    Format: Hardcover

    I received this book in a book exchange. It is a humanizing-scholarly study into the Puritan to Colonial stories. Many of the names were familiar, but Bruce Daniels' research is impressive. But like so much history, the women are more of a side note. This is not a story, but a study of the colonizers of New England and a basis for so much of our history. This is a great read for a student of history.

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