Around five years ago, or maybe a little longer, I bought a used paperback copy of Winthrop’s Boston by Darrett B. Rutman (1965; my pb copy 1972, I think). I had never heard of the book, but I bought it for the purposes of reading history (which I love), understanding the world many of Lynda’s ancestors moved into when they arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s, and perhaps providing information for one of the Documenting America books. A couple of months ago, the book finally came to the top of my reading pile, and I read it.

I must say it wasn’t quite what I had in mind when I bought it. It was good, but the writer had an agenda. He set out to prove that Boston never quite became Winthrop’s “city on a hill”, and that the Puritan influence in Boston wasn’t as great as most historians lead you to believe.

Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t. Rutman went to great lengths, in some cases to the point of being tedious, to prove his point. I struggled not to skip at times, and at times I did skip—not a lot, but especially toward the end I came to places where I saw no value to some part, and I skipped it. Shame on me. I guess I also wasn’t thinking when I bought the book. I was thinking it would be about all of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It really was just about Boston. The towns adjacent to Boston come up in the book a little, but not much.

The book has little genealogical information. Yes, a few family heads are mentioned.

The book is a dry history book. Worth the read if you are into studying the Puritans, but otherwise not. There would be better history books of Boston. But, if you have ancestors in Boston between 1629 and 1647 or so, and want to know more about what the city was like at that time, it is worth the read. The value of the book to you will depend on what you are looking for.  For me, it was just 2-stars.

And, it is not a keeper. Into the sale/donate pile it goes.