Seventeenth-century New Englanders learned a sense of community in a variety of ways. Though they absorbed much through the thousands of sermons they heard throughout their lifetimes, written histories also helped to shape common ideas. Authorizing the Past reveals a developing strand of historical discourse that was as important as the pulpit literature for creating a sense of "national" identity for the people of seventeenth-century New England.

This first book-length analysis of seventeenth-century Puritan histories demonstrates the growing professionalism and sophistication of New England historiography as a genre in its own right. Arch focuses on rhetorical strategies, narrative techniques, and evidentiary conventions to show how the profession of history developed in the first seventy years of settlement in New England.

Arch concludes that narrative histories are fictional constructs designed to effect changes in their audiences and the societies in which they live. Authorizing the Past will engage anyone interested in the convergence between history and fiction, as well as students of colonial American literature, history, and culture.