Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America

This well-written, solidly researched biography should be read by all well-informed Americans with a serious interest in the origins of our traditions of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Gaustad (retired professor of history, University of California at Riverside and the author of several works, including A Religious History of America , HarperCollins, 1966; 1990. rev. ed.) makes 17th-century religious controversies and the political ramifications of these controversies understandable to the nonspecialist reader; his concluding chapter is a tour de force that traces the reputation of Williams from the 17th to the 20th century. Rhode Island readers will benefit from Gaustad's account of the origins of their state and its split from the Puritan Massachusetts of John Cotton and John Winthrop.
- Susan A. Stussy, Barton Cty. Community Coll., Great Bend, Kan.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.