Puritans at play : leisure and recreation in colonial New England

'It is rare for a book to be both erudite and amusing at the same time, and this book has succeeded. It has changed the common but unacceptable image of the Puritans as dull, solemn, melancholy misanthropes' - Horton Davies, author of The Worship of the American Puritans For over four centuries, 'puritan' has been a synonym for dour, joyless, and repressed. In Puritans at Play, Bruce Daniels reappraises the accuracy of this grim portrait by examining leisure and recreation in colonial and revolutionary New England. Chapters on music, dinner parties, dancing, sex, alcohol, taverns, and sports are presented in a lively style making this book as entertaining as it is illuminating. Introduction: Puritanism, Play, and American Culture - DID PURITANS LIKE FUN? - Sober Mirth and Pleasant Poisons: Historians, Puritan Ambivalence, and the Concept of Pleasure in Early New England - INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT - Quiet Times: Reading for Pleasure and Profit - Music and Theater Struggle for Legitimacy - GATHERING TOGETHER - Congregational Socializing: Gathering Together at the Meetinghouse - Civic Socializing: Parties for the Common Good - MEN AND WOMEN FROLIC TOGETHER - Frolics for Fun: Dances, Weddings, and Dinner Parties - The Progress of Romance: Sex and Courtship - Drinking and Socializing: Alcohol, Taverns, and Alehouse Culture - SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS - Men Frolic by Themselves: Sport and Games in a Male Culture - The Fragmentation of Social Experience: Age, Gender, Location, and Social Class - PURITANS, REVOLUTIONARIES AND AMERICANS - The Puritan Legacy: The National Inheritance - Endnotes - Index For over four centuries "puritan" has been a synonym for "dour," "joyless," and "repressed." In the 1930s however, historians began to reappraise the accuracy of this grim portrait. Bruce C. Daniels continues that reappraisal by examining leisure and recreation in colonial and revolutionary New England. He looks closely not only at what New Englanders did from 1620 to 1790, but also at what they said about play, pleasure, and relaxation, thereby placing their deeds and words in the context of an evolving and complex social structure. Daniels's descriptions of leisure and recreational activities do justice to both the intellectual richness of the historical material and to its inherent charm. Chapters on reading, music, civic celebrations, dinner parties, dancing, courtship, sex, alcohol, taverns, sports and games are presented in a lively style designed to make this book as entertaining as it is illuminating. For over four centuries, "Puritan" has been a synonym for dour, joyless, and repressed. In Puritans at Play, Bruce Daniels reappraises the accuracy of this grim portrait by examing leisure and recreation in Colonial and Revolutionary New England. Chapters on music, dinner parties, dancing, sex, alcohol, taverns, and sports are presented in a lively style that makes this book as entertaining as it is illuminating. -- Provided by publisher For over four centuries "puritan" has been a synonym for the dour, the joyless, the repressed.