“An Instrument of National Policy”: Perry Miller and the Cold War

Abstract

Perry Miller was one of the most famous and distinguished American intellectual historians, in the estimation of his contemporaries and the evaluations of more recent scholars. Although his death provided some detractors with an opportunity to question his findings without fear of riposte, more recent studies confirm the relevance of his work to those historians seeking answers today to the questions which he addressed. This is especially true in the Puritan period, where his massive encapsulation of The New England Mind is a routine point of departure for new enquiries.