Book Review

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to JAH online. About 219 words from this article are provided below; about 322 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the Organization of American Historians, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time.
If you are not a member of the Organization of American Historians, you can:: • Join the OAH and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the Journal of American History.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two-hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the Journal of American History (86.1-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the Journal of American History.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.4 | The History Cooperative

The New England Knight: Sir William Phips, 1651-1695. By Emerson W. Baker and JohnG. Reid. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. xxiv, 359 pp. Cloth, $65.00, isbn 0-8020-0925-5. Paper, $19.95, isbn 0-8020-8171-1.)

Shepherd child, ship carpenter, coaster captain, treasure salvor, knight and provost marshal, expeditionary commander, and, as a result of the 1688-1689 coup, the first native-born governor-general of Massachusetts (or of any royal province), Sir William Phips has been uniformly judged boorish and ineffective. This, the first full-length biography of Phips, reluctantly confirms the condemnation of its subject, but the authors seek to "nuance" criticisms and to widen their context in light of recent studies of the Wabanaki peoples, naval officers, "projectors," New England towns, frontiers, and families, and "English imperial history in a crucial transitional period." 1

The incorporation of these studies into Phips's "life and times" is to compensate for Phips's illiteracy and for Cotton Mather's biography, which polished his family's tool. Phips was "A machin[e] moved by every Phanatical finger, The Contempt of wise men and sport of the fooles." So the governor-general of New York pilloried "the Poor Knight." Indeed, Phips was manipulated, first by the Mathers and then by Puritan reactionaries. He was denigrated by elites imperial and provincial. He responded viscerally to his social equals in Boston's north end. . . .

There are about 322 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.