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“the historical sense involves a perception, not only of the pastness of the past,
but of its presence”
--T.S. Eliot
It is axiomatic that the present identity of any political regime is tied to its past,
especially the critical moments of its creation or founding. The cultural recollection of
such moments always shapes—at least to some degree—a contemporary society’s moral
vision, sense of purpose, and capacity to act. Ever since Plato’s “Noble Lie,” effective
tyrants and radical revolutionaries have understood this. Thus, once assuming power,
they quickly move to rewrite and maintain the history of the state. Think here of Soviet
Union textbooks during the Cold War, and the calendars of rationalist Jacobins which
made 1792 Anno Domini (year of the Lord) year I. Even in liberal democracies, for
whom central control of history is antithetical, ideologues constantly fight informal but
often bitter “culture wars” over the nature and meaning of a regime’s heritage, and
politicians intermittently wage equally bitter legislative battles over the way history and
science (to the degree science attempts to give an account of the origin of all things)
should be taught in public schools.
Thus, given the stakes for America’s present in how we think about her political
past, it is well worth considering how John Winthrop—the critical figure of Puritan New
England—is regarded in this country. The subtitle of a recently published, Oxford Press,
biography which calls Winthrop “America’s Forgotten Founding Father” indicates the
trickiness of such a task (Bremer 2003). Winthrop is, at once, famous and obscure. As
will be shown, Winthrop is widely acknowledged among prominent scholars, politicians,
and cultural observers as a figure of founding importance for America, while his name
Convention