The Rise of the New Puritans

Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun

By: Noah Rothman

Narrated by: Noah Rothman

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

-H.L. Mencken

The Left used to be the party of the hippies and the free spirits. Now it’s home to woke scolds and humorless idealogues. The New Puritans can judge a person’s moral character by their clothes, Netflix queue, fast food favorites, the sports they watch, and the company they keep. No choice is neutral, no sphere is private.

Not since the Puritans has a political movement wanted so much power over your thoughts, hobbies, and preferences every minute of your day. In the process, they are sucking the joy out of life.

In The Rise of the New Puritans, Noah Rothman explains how, in pursuit of a better world, progressives are ruining the very things which make life worth living. They’ve created a society full of verbal trip wires and digital witch hunts. Football? Too violent. Fusion food? Appropriation. The nuclear family? Oppressive.

Witty, deeply researched, and thorough, The Rise of the New Puritans encourages us to spurn a movement whose primary goal has become limiting happiness. It uncovers the historical roots of the left’s war on fun and reminds us of the freedom and personal fulfillment at the heart of the American experiment.

©2022 Noah Rothman (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Outstanding book to read for 2023

The author does an excellent job of drawing the parallels between old-fashioned Puritanism and today’s left. Although he is a little verbose, he keeps the reader captivated by the timely, subject material. I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to understand the difficult times our nation is going through here in the early 21st-century

Proves holier-than-thou can have nothing to ...

Proves holier-than-thou can be unrelated to holiness. New Puritans are an unholy bunch, yet they think they are better.

Great, fast summer read

The insights will make the current headlines seem a little less crazy. The history lessons are fascinating and a primer of our colonial past. I especially enjoyed Noah’s reading. It was one of those fast reads that was done over a weekend. Enjoy, and never stifle your laughter.

Fighting the culture wars

What a great read ! It was interesting to learn about the parallels between the progressive left and the Puritans. Rothman takes us on a historical deep dive of original puritan religion and cross references it with anecdotal media stories of how old puritan ways of curtailing fun snuck into our everyday lives. Todays we live in a world filled with the fear of being canceled, the metaphoric witch hunt, for the non pc comedy we like, the fusion food we eat and the culturally appropriated cloths we wear. Rothman’s advice to us is to just live a little and laugh at the character they are. None of these ideas are bad or unjust, it’s just the extremes that they are taken that have gone to far in their puritanical rhetoric.

A great listen!

Noah has become a must read/listen on this subject. His combination of facts and wit make learning enjoyable.

Intelligent, Grounded, Historical, & Important

It is an important read for everyone. It is thoughtful, grounded in history review of what's going on within our culture. It works hard to be apolitical.

Moral Minority: Uh-Yes, Rothman!

Brilliant must read (hear). The author is both a trained thespian and leading public intellectual, so the sophisticated performance is as pleasing to listen to as the incisive analysis is illuminating to consider. Moreover, he’s right. Sanctimonious scolds have, indeed, taken over the left, and now hector us ceaselessly over the supposed moral failings inherent to our vocabulary, diet, art, entertainment, athletics, clothing, pronouns, relationships, children’s books, you name it. Every little thing is now seen as fraught with momentous significance by the hysterical SJW, whose righteous mission is to tutor the rest of us slobs in progressive perfectionism. However, as Noah Rothman’s clever takedown shows—it’s bs. Arm yourself with his insights and you’ll never be at a loss for thoughtful, reasoned comebacks when confronted by these violent “medievals with lattes,” our grim Puritans. Enjoy!

A disappointment

Like the author, I am deeply suspicious of the growing trend towards totalitarianism on all sides of the political sphere, but this book is a very shallow and at times disingenuous reckoning with that tendency on the left. Designed mostly to play well on conservative media, I’m sure the author will dine out sumptuously on this dreck for a few news cycles, but the lightweight approach ensures it will be handily dismissed by those who might benefit most from a reconsideration of their puritanism. Here’s hoping someone else takes up this terrifying topic in a more substantive way.

Blah

Sing songy narration by a poof makes this a tough listen. Speeding up slowing down. Inflection of his voice changing sentence to sentence. I think he lost track that this is a book and not a Broadway play

It doesn’t help that every other paragraph is jumping from century to century

Even the authors ‘humor’ is grating and annoying

The content in theory should be interesting for me as I’m interested in how our world has come to this moment in time. I’m also a fan of reading history. This jumps around too much

I also have this feeling all thru out that the author has an unjustified sense of self importance that makes him come off as a confidence man

quite ignorant a a way you wouldn't expect.

I give this work a 5 on intentions but it fails in a strange way...The simplest way to explain is this,,,,,,Christian puritanism is at root defined as the fear or suspect of all pleasures...They then took this view and battered others who didn't hold it as they...The puritanism was not the tactics of or even having and pushing moral views on others or society, but was that particular moral view,,,aka. that all pleasures are suspect....The opposite heresy is paganism...aka That all decadence pleasure is good...
So, to compare woke views as a child of Christian puritanism is ignorant of Christian puritanism...
What is going on is today's very real religion of woke and progressivism USES a tactic and APPEARANCE OF Old Christian morality to justify THERE immoral lifestyles and agendas to Those who are governed buy the Christic and Jewish moral code...I suspect many also use it to justify it to themselves in this manner as well since they are subconsciously also informed of this moral code .
So I think this is not understood by this writer...