Sarah Vowell has attracted some fame with her wit, cleverly sending up the Puritans’ more bizarre aspects while reminding us of their virtues. She focuses on the Boston Puritans, not the smaller but more American-legendary Pilgrims of Plymouth. She reminds us that both groups were writers and intellectuals, very unlike today’s Bible Belt fundamentalists. She notes that Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” vision was about cooperation and interdependence, in contrast to the free-market ideological spin put on it by some politicians of our time. Only after these defenses does Vowell damningly indict the Puritan culture’s intolerance, misogyny and cruelty, including the horrendous massacre of 700 Pequot Indians at Mystic (now Connecticut). Vowell shares with us the American Indian side to her own heritage, though she neither romanticizes or demonizes any group. The wit and charm of this young writer belie a dark vision of our national roots and psyche.