In this volume Professor Notestein employs his mastery of the source material of the seventeenth century to recreate the character of the English people at a time when many Englishmen were making a new start on this continent. He gives a lively picture of English society and institutions on the eve of the great migration to America. Here is depicted what went into the making of that New World society and character which was eventually to be called American.
"This book gives ample evidence that it has been written by an authority with great erudition. On every hand are signs of extensive knowledge of a wide range of sources. The supporting data are well chosen. The style is easy and the various chapters leave a very clear impression. The illustrations are extremely valuable and will be new to most readers....This is a book that all interested in the England of the Virginia and New England plantations should 'read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.'"—THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
"The editors could not have been wiser in their choice of an author for the volume under review. For years Dr. Wallace Notestein has been using the sources of English history and has directed numerous graduate students in the study of the early seventeenth century. He moves with grace and ease among his sources and gives the reader the sense of security that only the master can give....The historical profession and the non-technical reader should be grateful to the author for a book that is scholarly, humane and eminently readable."—the historian