Governing the Tongue The Politics of Speech in Early New England [Hardcover]

Governing the Tongueexplains why the spoken word assumed such importance in the culture of early New England. In a work that is at once historical, socio-cultural, and linguistic, Jane Kamensky explores the little-known words of unsung individuals, and reconsiders such famous Puritan events as the banishment of Anne Hutchinson and the Salem witch trials, to expose the ever-present fear of what the Puritans called sins of the tongue. But even while dangerous or deviant speech was restricted, as Kamensky illustrates here, godly speech was continuously praised and promoted. Congregations were told that one should lift one's voice like a trumpet to God and cry out and cease not. By placing speech at the heart of New England's early history, Kamensky develops new ideas about the complex relationship between speech and power in both Puritan New England and, by extension, our world today.

Introduction
1. The Sweetest Meat, the Bitterest Poison
2. A Most Unquiet Hiding Place
3. The Misgovernment of Woman's Tongue
4. Publick Fathers and Cursing Sons
5. Saying and Unsaying
6. The Tongue is a Witch
Epilogue
Appendix: Litigation over Speech in Massachusetts, 1630-1692

'Speech history' is a topic scarcely imagined as recently as a few years ago. But now, with Jane Kamensky's pathbreaking new book in hand, scholars and students of the American past must take it very seriously indeed. With the utmost care, with great interpretive finesse, and in consistently sparkling prose, Kamensky shows us a new side of that venerable target--colonial New England--and provides as well an excellent model for other studies of other places. --John Demos, Yale University

Jane Kamensky'sGoverning the Tongueis a fascinating study of the spoken word in seventeenth-century New England. At once meticulously researched and elegantly argued, it combines trenchant analysis with writing so lively and fresh that it is a must read notll