The first reviewer for the work gives an admirable and accurate summary of its main theses, so I will cut to the chase and begin my critique. I am one of the undergraduates who had the good fortune to actually read this book for Innes' course in Colonial American history at U.Va. As such, my opinion of the book may be skewed by the context in which I read it. In the book, Innes makes an admirable effort in making the Puritans understandable to the modern reader. He cogently outlines the foundational ethic of Puritans and how its internal paradoxes fostered constant striving for social justice and economic prosperity. The book is useful in dispelling much of the fairy tale images of early American history that popular culture feeds us. Readers shouldn't fear the word "economic" in the subtitle; the text is dense but not inaccessible. Nevertheless, the book IS an undergraduate level textbook, and it is rather substantial. I recommend it only for the reader with a real passion for the subject matter.

Innes argues that the economic success of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was due to the Puritans creation of a society in which capitalism, community, and civil society were connected. The Protestant work ethic, which was taught in the household, pulpit, meetinghouse, and assembly, instructed that God provided every man with a calling and it was his duty to work hard at it. This religious-based work ethic coupled with the belief that profit taking was fine as long as the profits were used to help others (the linking of individual and collective well-being) encouraged the development, within the community, of an individual-based capitalism. These two beliefs endorsed "striving" behavior and enterprise which led to the growth of the economy.