Who Were the Puritans?

Featured Speaker: Professor Mark Hanna

This lecture will explore the complex and often contradictory world view of some of the first English settlers of New England, people we today remember as “Puritans” and associate with the first Thanksgiving. They brought with them across the Atlantic an amalgam of religious convictions that they hoped would help them establish a truly Godly community in America, achieving mixed results. Among the most interesting of these settlers were John Winthrop and Ann Hutchinson.

Presenter Biography

Mark G. Hanna is an Associate Professor of History at UC San Diego and the author of Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740. He is a historian of early America and the British Empire and has appeared on shows like Netflix’s The Lost Pirate Kingdom, NPR’s This American Life, and PBS’s Rogue History. Hanna received his B.A. from Yale and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Coordinator: Candace Gietzen