Winthrop was a puritan leader in East Anglia rising to prominence when the policies of James I and Charles I thwarted his ambitions and threatened the viability of puritan reforms. In 1630 he was chosen governor the Massachusetts Bay Company and its colony, and led the Great Migration to become the principal architect of the colonial puritans. American historians--with one literature scholar and one Scot--make his not so much their subject, but more a pivot around which they explore religious and political relations between the old world and the new. Seven of the eight essays are from a conference for which no date or location is cited. Distributed in the US by University of Virginia Press. Annotation 2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
