ABSTRACT
The conjunction of the twentieth century spread of interest in European history with the rise of "scientific" history in its various versions has converted themes into assumptions, with all due refinement, into the academic respectability of professional history. In a century of political isolation the traditional religious motif remained the main substantive theme locating America in world history. Puritan historians of the seventeenth century wrote Providential history that included the traditional scheme of the Four Empires, ending in Rome; and the dramatic story of Reformation and persecution that furnished the setting for the narrative of New England. A perusal of the leading histories of the colonial and Revolutionary periods shows that the Old World reference was not so much written as written about. William Bradford's introductory chapter, in his History of Plymouth Plantation, is rather theological than historical; his only discussion of a larger historical context is the brief denotation of the divinely sponsored spurs to the American adventure.
