The first volume is a projected series, this is a topical analysis of various ideas in colonial New England, rather than a history, and covers religion and learning, cosmology, anthropology and sociology. In highly crudite form, and shows the relaxation due to economic, intellectual and social development at the end of the century. It is not for the audience that made The Flowering of New England a best seller, for this is as solid-going as the Puritan mind it explores, but for the scholar it provides an interpretation of the importance of Puritanism in the history of America and the world.