The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts
"Every chapter provides detailed analyses of threats to the balance of power ... Staloff is at his most effective when he provides 'close readings' of this complex process of contentious consensus ... genuinely impressive erudition in the early history of New England." --W. Clark Gilpin,Universityof Chicago"Staloff presents a provocative argument.  It is a thoughtful, intelligent work, one that considers the Puritan elite as dynamic and self-interested.  The book is certain to rekindle interest (if it ever died out) in the intellectual history of the Puritans in New England and show us how we can use innovations from other fields, such as sociology, to refine our thinking about history."--The New England Quarterly