12 ms·
The puritans were a tiny group of people who lived in basically one corner of one state. I know it is thrown around a lot(e.g. "Why is America so conservative o
by oh_sigh 8y ago
The puritans were a tiny group of people who lived in basically one corner of one state. I know it is thrown around a lot(e.g. "Why is America so conservative on sex? Puritans"), but I'm fairly sure the 98+% of non-puritans who emigrated to the US had a bigger impact on our culture than the puritans.
- war1025 8y agoI believe the more general term is "Protestant Work Ethic", which encompasses a much larger swath of people.
- village-idiot 8y agoThat’s like saying “most of the people in South America weren’t from Spain, why should 16th century Spanish culture have an impact on South America?” It kind of makes sense until you start counting how many people speak Spanish! The puritans are part of the founding myth of America. Ask any school child who founded the colonies and they’ll tell you the pilgrims. That kind of impact lingers. Nobody ever mentions Dutch settlers in what’s now New York or the Spanish in what’s now Florida. That doesn’t mean we’re literally puritans (which wasn’t my claim anyways), but that does mean that the echoes of their culture still have an impact on us today. And, as others have kindly pointed out, “Protestant work ethic” is considered a valid term for the same historical/social trends by academics.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- sudosteph 8y agoYou're being a little pendantic. I think the original commenter clearly meant the better known phrase "protestant work ethic" rather than puritan - and protestant influence was indeed very significant to the formation of US culture.