Code Name Puritan
Norman Holmes Pearson at the Nexus of Poetry, Espionage, and American Power
by Greg Barnhisel
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Oct 09 2024 | Archive Date Oct 04 2024
Talking about this book? Use #CodeNamePuritan #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Although his impact on twentieth-century American cultural life was profound, few people know the story of Norman Holmes Pearson. Pearson’s life embodied the Cold War alliances among US artists, scholars, and the national-security state that coalesced after World War II. As a Yale professor and editor, he helped legitimize the study of American culture and shaped the public’s understanding of literary modernism—significantly, the work of women poets such as Hilda Doolittle and Gertrude Stein. At the same time, as a spy, recruiter, and cultural diplomat, he connected the academy, the State Department, and even the CIA.
In Code Name Puritan, Greg Barnhisel maps Pearson’s life, from his childhood injury that led to a visible, permanent disability to his wartime counterespionage work neutralizing the Nazis’ spy network to his powerful role in the cultural and political heyday sometimes called the American Century. Written with clarity and informed by meticulous research, Barnhisel’s revelatory portrait of Pearson details how his unique experiences shaped his beliefs about the American character, from the Puritans onward.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780226647203 |
| PRICE | $32.50 (USD) |
| PAGES | 392 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Miles L, Educator
Code Name Puritan, by Greg Barnhisel, is both a thoroughly researched historical account and a very engaging read.
I will admit this is right up my alley, well, one of my alleys. My father was part of the intelligence community from his days during WWII through his time at Fort Meade as a civilian. While I was military for an enlistment, one of my undergraduate degrees was English. So I have an interest in both worlds in which Pearson traveled.
I think what makes this such an enjoyable book is that we move between biography, history, and analysis of what made this specific person, in this specific time, so unique and important. We come to understand the person and the things that motivated him. We learn about why the intelligence community did some of the things they did. And we also gain some insight into why things did or didn't work to plan all around. And we never feel we leave any of these threads behind as we progress.
Whether your interest is primarily this period of history, or you are mostly interested in reading about the people who stepped up during moments of need, you will find a lot here to make you happy. You may also, like I did, go and look up some things that you want to know more about. I always appreciate a book that tells me what it intended and does so while also making me even more interested in peripheral topics.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
