CURRENTLY SOLD OUT

Errand into the Wilderness by Perry Miller (Paperback, 1956)

About this product

Product Information

The title of this book by Perry Miller, who is world-famous as an interpreter of the American past, comes close to posing the question it has been Mr. Miller's lifelong purpose to answer: What was the underlying aim of the first colonists in coming to America? In what light did they see themselves? As men and women undertaking a mission that was its own cause and justification? Or did they consider themselves errand boys for a higher power which might, as is frequently the habit of authority, change its mind about the importance of their job before they had completed it? These questions are by no means frivolous. They go to the roots of seventeenth-century thought and of the ever-widening and quickening flow of events since then. Disguised from twentieth-century readers first by the New Testament language and thought of the Puritans and later by the complacent transcendentalist belief in the oversoul, the related problems of purpose and reason-for-being have been central to the American experience from the very beginning. Mr. Miller makes this abundantly clear and real, and in doing so allows the reader to conclude that, whatever else America might have become, it could never have developed into a society that took itself for granted. The title, Errand into the Wilderness, is taken from the title of a Massachusetts election sermon of 1670. Like so many jeremiads of its time, this sermon appeared to be addressed to the sinful and unregenerate whom God was about to destroy. But the original speaker's underlying concern was with the fateful ambiguity in the word errand. Whose errand? This crucial uncertainty of the age is the starting point of Mr. Miller's engrossing account of what happened to the European mind when, in spite of itself, it began to become something other than European. For the second generation in America discovered that their heroic parents had, in fact, been sent on a fool's errand, the bitterest kind of all; that the dream of a model society to be built in purity by the elect in the new continent was now a dream that meant nothing more to Europe. The emigrants were on their own. Thus left alone with America, who were they? And what were they to do? In this book, as in all his work, the author of The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century; The New England Mind: From Colony to Province, and The Transcendentalists, emphasizes the need for understanding the human sources from which the American mainstream has risen. In this integrated series of brilliant and witty essays which he describes as pieces, Perry Miller invites and stimulates in the reader a new conception of his own inheritance.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Harvard University Press
ISBN-13
9780674261556
eBay Product ID (ePID)
94643017

Product Key Features

Book Title
Errand Into the Wilderness
Author
Perry Miller
Format
Paperback
Language
English
Publication Year
1956
Number of Pages
256 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
238mm
Item Width
152mm
Item Weight
381g

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Perry Miller
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

Best Selling in Books

See all

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Books

Australian Bushcraft by Richard Graves (Paperback, 2019)
4.5 out of 5 stars based on 4 product ratings
AU $32.59 New
AU $30.00 Used
Gods of Eden by William Bramley (Paperback, 1993)
4.9 out of 5 stars based on 22 product ratings
AU $22.14 New
AU $9.95 Used
The Acid Watcher Diet: A 28-Day Reflux Prevention and Healing Program by Jonathan Aviv (Paperback, 2017)
4.9 out of 5 stars based on 11 product ratings
AU $40.17 New
---- Used
Learn to Read Hebrew in 6 Weeks by Miiko Shaffier (Paperback, 2016)
No ratings or reviews yet.
AU $41.18 New
---- Used
Conversations with Phantoms: Exclusive Interviews About the 1978 TV Movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park by Ron Albanese (Paperback, 2020)
No ratings or reviews yet.
AU $21.99 New
AU $9.99 Used

Save on Books

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Books

Frank Herbert'S Dune Saga 3-Book Boxed Set: Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of
AU $44.95
Trending at AU $48.47
The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor Lavey (English) Mass Market Paperback Book
AU $18.97
Trending at AU $19.31
A Gentleman in Moscow: The worldwide bestseller by Amor Towles (Paperback, 2017)
AU $14.00
Trending at AU $17.58
F*Ck Off! This Is MY Coloring Book: the Very F*Cking Best of John T | Swear Word
AU $15.30
Trending at AU $16.11

Shop by category

Errand into the Wilderness by Perry Miller (Paperback, 1956)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Books

Australian Bushcraft by Richard Graves (Paperback, 2019)

Gods of Eden by William Bramley (Paperback, 1993)

The Acid Watcher Diet: A 28-Day Reflux Prevention and Healing Program by Jonathan Aviv (Paperback, 2017)

Learn to Read Hebrew in 6 Weeks by Miiko Shaffier (Paperback, 2016)

Conversations with Phantoms: Exclusive Interviews About the 1978 TV Movie, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park by Ron Albanese (Paperback, 2020)

Save on Books

Frank Herbert'S Dune Saga 3-Book Boxed Set: Dune, Dune Messiah, and Children of

The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor Lavey (English) Mass Market Paperback Book

A Gentleman in Moscow: The worldwide bestseller by Amor Towles (Paperback, 2017)

FCk Off! This Is MY Coloring Book: the Very FCking Best of John T | Swear Word

You may also like

Non-Fiction Wilderness Paperback Fiction & Books

Laura Ingalls Wilder Paperback Fiction & Books

Fiction Paperback Laura Ingalls Wilder & Fiction Books

Thomas Perry Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Anne Perry Fiction Paperback Fiction & Books

Laura Ingalls Wilder Fiction Picture Book Paperback Fiction & Books