Creating the Commonwealth

Stephen Innes takes on a durable myth — the rugged Puritan individualist — and dismantles it with archival precision, showing instead that Massachusetts Bay Colony's economic success was built on communal structures: family, church, town, and commonwealth working together. His detailed account of ironworks, fisheries, and shipyards gives the revisionist argument real texture, and Publishers Weekly praised his 'wonderful detail' on early New England workers. Kirkus noted that Innes gives 'new strength to an old idea' about the Puritan ethic becoming the capitalist's greed. For readers interested in the relationship between Calvinist faith and American economic culture, the material is substantive and richly documented. The honest caveat: the academic prose is dense and the 1995 publication date means subsequent scholarship has continued refining the field. A serious, rewarding work for serious readers.