A Constitutional Culture

Adrian Chastain Weimer is Professor of History at Providence College and author of Martyrs' Mirror: Persecution and Holiness in Early New England.

"Exactly where, or in the words of whom, a widespread belief in colonial sovereignty first articulated itself is really not the question this book sets out to answer-its author is far too astute and sensitive a reader of the archive to fall into that trap. Instead, we have a messier portrait of this time and place, one that is richer because its author wisely chooses to let these competing, contradictory, confusing, and (quite?) arbitrary set of political, cultural, and religious arguments exist without forcing them into resolution...Thanks to Weimer's study, we have a much more detailed, better-argued, and persuasively evidenced account of one of the lesser-studied chapters of the longer narrative of how the United States came to believe in the legitimacy of its own self-rule." (Early American Literature) "The 1660s in New England were once considered diminished and insignificant, a once united and inspired society that had lost its original direction....In Adrian Chastain Weimer's hands, the 1660s emerge as the opposite of diminished and insignificant....[Her] analysis of this decade and her argument about constitutional thinking in the early English Atlantic are convincing....She rehabilitates Restoration New England as a vibrant and politically engaged place where dynamic debates took place about the future among an energized population" (William and Mary Quarterly) "A Constitutional Culture tells a captivating story of division, resistance, and the charter-based allegiance of New England's colonists to the newly restored Stuart Crown in the 1660s...Weimer constructs a clear, resolute perspective of colonial resistance through the Restoration era that is both compelling and comprehensive. Her familiarity with the sources and historiography is evident in the well-crafted, detail-rich story of this very impressive work. " (H-Early America) "With A Constitutional Culture, Adrian Chastain Weimer joins the first rank of historians of colonial New England and makes a powerful contribution to our understanding of the nature of political culture in early America. Weimer centers the period immediately following the Restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660 as the critical moment when a distinctive constitutional culture, different from and in resistance to the constitutional culture of Restoration England, coalesced in New England." (Mark A. Peterson, Yale University) "Weimer's deeply researched and elegantly written study offers fascinating new insight into the resistance of New Englanders to the absolutist pretensions of the Restoration monarchy. Drawing on a wide range of sources that highlight the social depth in politics in 1660s New England and the powerful interactions between the English state and Charles II's subjects across the Atlantic, A Constitutional Culture is a must-read for English historians and Americanists alike." (Tim Harris, Brown University)