Introduction: Overview and Method; 1. Eros, Conscience, and the Making of Puritan Society; 2. Female Piety in the Lives of Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton; 3. Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, and the Importance of Women in Puritan Culture; 4. The Rise and Fall of Female Piety as a Symbol of New England; Afterword; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary
This treatise documents the claim that, for Puritan men and women alike, the ideals of selfhood were conveyed by female images. It argues that these images taught self-control, shaped pious ideals and established the standards against which the moral character of real women was measured
