Agents of Wrath, Sowers and Discord reconciles two conflicting schools of thought within the historiography of American Puritanism, and provides a new look at religious and political controversy in colonial New England. Addressing more recent scholarship that dismisses the notion of a discernable Puritan identity, Timothy L. Wood challenges previous interpretations that have depicted a monolithic Puritan establishment ruthlessly crushing all principled opposition within the colony, and instead emphasizes the enormous importance the colony's leadership placed upon balancing their allegiance to...

This book explores the authorities of Puritan Massachusetts balanced concern for the stability of the colony and the integrity of its Puritan mission with the hopes of reconciling dissidents back into the colonial community.