History covering the first eight years or so of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with ruminations on the place of the Puritans and their thinking in the subsequent history and civic philosophy of the United States. Draws heavily on the writings of John Winthrop, Roger Williams, John Cotton, and other Puritan contemporaries. This is the first Sarah Vowell book I've read since I learned that she was on This American Life in the 90s, so it was hard not to imagine the book as a long This American Life episode, with Vowell's voice and delivery, the sound effects, but without the precious This American Life musical choices. I like Vowell's speculation of what John Winthrop would think of Sandra Day O'Connor's callback to his “A Model of Christian Charity” speech (“wondering when did women become magistrates”).