Winsome Puritanism

“Misunderstanding the Puritans is a popular indoor sport for many amateur historians and not a few professionals . . . Anne Bradstreet was a representative figure, but she is frequently presented as a Puritan anomaly. She had such a winsome personality, and, since everyone knows that the Puritans were cranks, she is treated as something of a genetic fluke among the Puritans. You see, she was nice” (Beyond Stateliest Marble, p. 25).