Who were the Puritans?

Who were the people who ventured to New England in the 1630s, established what is now the city of Boston, and banned Christmas? Renowned historian and author Frank Bremer, one of the world's foremost scholars on Puritanism in both England and New England, answers all your questions and more. How did the Puritans differ from the Pilgrims, who arrived ten years earlier? What did they seek by founding their new settlement? What is Puritanism, and how did the Puritans' social gospel shape their endeavor? …And why did they ban Christmas?
Dr. Francis J. Bremer is professor emeritus of history at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He has held fellowships for study and teaching at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England and at Trinity College in Dublin. He has published 19 books dealing with early American history, most recently One Small Candle: The Story of the Plymouth Puritans and the Beginning of English New England (2020), and Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford: A New 400th Anniversary Edition, edited and introduced by Francis J. Bremer and Kenneth P. Minkema (2020). He is currently working on an edition of William Bradford’s “Dialogues,” poetry, and other writings with Kenneth Minkema and David Lupher. He is editing a handbook of Puritanism along with Greg Salazar and Ann Hughes for Oxford University Press. He is also working on a study of the role of women in Puritanism in the Atlantic world.
James Boggie, Trustee of the Partnership and interviewer, was born and raised in the city, and studied history at Boston University.