With an American Pen: Cotton Mather’s Transition to the Enlightenment (English Edition)

Cotton Mather, a leading intellectual of the 17th and 18th century, bridged the English colonies in North America to the Enlightenment in England and the European continent, enabling a new system of thinking to cross its Atlantic barrier. Colonial historian D. L. Denham provides a sweeping argument, showing that Mather transitioned from traditional Puritanism to becoming America's first great man of the Enlightenment, influencing Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. With an American Pen explores Mather's education, influence at the Salem Witch Trials, initiatives to reform Boston, and Mather's radical political campaign to bring inoculation to Boston -- saving thousands from a deadly smallpox outbreak.