Pillars of Salt

In Pillars of Salt, Daniel E. Williams provides two-score of the most significant American criminal narratives from the colonial and early national periods, examples of a genre that hitherto has received little attention from literary and cultural historians. Deeply informed by reading in the relevant critical theory and the voluminous secondary literature on early New England, his lengthy introduction offers the most detailed analyses we have of the cultural work of these narratives. All students of early American history and culture, of the history of the book in America, and of the sociology of literature generally should find this collection provocative. -- Philip F. Gura, editor of Early American Literature It is wonderful to have these in print! These narratives are a superb source for understanding the social history of the colonial period. The author's introduction does an excellent job of placing them in their context. These are the kinds of material that will appeal to scholars and students as well as to the general public. I am delighted. -- David Rothman, author of Discovery of the Asylum: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic Pillars of Salt brings together texts that embody the interplay of high culture and low, order and disorder, the sacred and the secular. In doing so these texts are unusually revealing of the complexities of culture in early America. Daniel Williams' introduction and careful editing add greatly to the value of this collection. -- David Hall, author of Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England