Prospero's America: John Winthrop, Jr., Alchemy, and the Creation of New England Culture, 1606-1676
ISBN: 9781469603070
Platform/Publisher: Oxford Academic / University of North Carolina Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited
Subjects: Intellectual History;

In Prospero's America , Walter W. Woodward examines the transfer of alchemical culture to America by John Winthrop, Jr., one of English colonization's early giants. Winthrop participated in a pan-European network of natural philosophers who believed alchemy could improve the human condition and hasten Christ's Second Coming. Woodward demonstrates the influence of Winthrop and his philosophy on New England's cultural formation: its settlement, economy, religious toleration, Indian relations, medical practice, witchcraft prosecution, and imperial diplomacy. Prospero's America reconceptualizes the significance of early modern science in shaping New England hand in hand with Puritanism and politics.


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