Short-Answer Question (Practice)
Period 2 – APUSH
Excerpt #1
The temple of American Puritanism, fell because it was built, had to be built, on the sands of human nature.
When the pillars of the structure—political autonomy, the close alliance of Church and State, the control of education,
orthodoxy, the stern code of morals, isolation—one after another began to sag, it was not so much the pillars themselves
as the sand which caused the trouble. It was from beneath that came the succession of shocks which threatened the whole
structure—the Roger Williams heresy, the Anne Hutchinson heresy, the Child petition, the Halfway Covenant, the
demand for a wider franchise, the liberalizing of Harvard, the defeat of the clergy and magistrates in the witchcraft
prosecutions, the growing laxness in morals.
In bringing to the New World a society which was largely the product of sixteenth-century thought and defending
it there against change in a changing world, there Puritans attempted the impossible. As the decades of the seventeenth
century passed, men’s minds expanded to keep pace with new scientific discoveries, with new ideals of human rights, with
new conceptions of man’s relation to God. The leaders of the old order in Massachusetts might as well have attempted to
interfere with the movement of the moon around the earth as to block these changes. While they were vainly trying to
crystallize the Puritan spirit of the time of Winthrop and Cotton, the tide of a new civilization swept over and past them.
- Thomas J. Wertenbaker, The Puritan Oligarchy, 1947
Excerpt #2
The leaders of Massachusetts Bay Colony enjoyed the luxury, no longer feasible in the 17thcentury England, of a
pure and simple orthodoxy.
The failure of New England Puritans to develop a theory of toleration, or even freely to examine the question, was
not in all ways a weakness. It made their literature less rich and gave much of their writing a quaint and crabbed sound,
but for a time at least, it was a source of strength. Theirs was not a philosophic enterprise; they were, first and foremost,
community-builders. The energies which their English contemporaries gave to sharpening the distinctions between
“compulsive” and “restrictive” powers in religion, between “matters essential” and “matters indifferent” and to a host of
other questions, which have never ceased to bother reflective students of political theory, the American Puritans were
given to marking off the boundaries of their new towns, to enforcing their criminal laws, and to fighting the Indian
menace. Their very orthodoxy strengthened their practical bent.
American Puritans were hardly more distracted from their practical tasks by theology and metaphysics than we are
today. They transcended theological preoccupation precisely because they had no doubts and allowed no dissent. Had
they spent as much of their energy in debating with each other as did their English contemporaries, they might have lacked
the single-mindedness needed to overcome the dark, unpredictable perils of a wilderness. They might have merited praise
as precursors of modern liberalism, but they might never have helped found a nation.
- Daniel J. Boorstin, “The Puritan Tradition: Community Above Ideology,” Commentary, XXXVI, 1958
Using the excerpts above, answer parts a, b, and c.
a) Briefly explain ONE major difference between Wertinbaker’s and Boorstin’s interpretations.
b) Briefly explain how someone supporting Wertinbaker’s interpretation could use one piece of evidence from the
period 1630 to 1700 not directly mentioned in the excerpt.
c) Briefly explain how someone supporting Boorstin’s interpretation could use one piece of evidence from the
period 1630 to 1700 not directly mentioned in the excerpt.
Directions: Using only the response box provided on the next page answer parts a, b, and c. Clearly
label your response a, b, or c and separate the responses by one blank line. A thesis is not required but
you need to turn the question into a topic sentence for your response. For example:
A. One major difference between Wertinbaker’s and Boorstin’s interpretations is…
B. One piece of evidence to support Wertinbaker’s interpretation is…
C. One piece of evidence to support Boorstin’s interpretation is…