Note 347 — Chapter II · (continued 2)

An eminent Catholic authority, John G. Shea, in the Amer. Cath. Q. Rev., ix. (1884) p. 70, on “Puritanism in New England,” has said: “New England has framed not only her own history, but to a great extent the whole history of this country as it is generally read and popularly understood.... Schools made New Englanders a reading and writing people, and no subject was more palatable than themselves.... The consequence is that the works on New England history exceed those of all other parts of the country.... The general histories of the United States, like those of Bancroft and Hildreth, are written from the New England point of view, and Palfrey embodies in an especial manner the whole genius and development of their distinctive autonomy, with all the extenuating circumstances, the deprecating apologies, the clever and artistic arrangement in the background, of all that might offend the present taste.”