How have the various generations of professional historians depicted the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries' New England Puritans?

As far as opinions go, those held by historians about the Puritans are among the most spread apart and controversial that can be found. Three groups of historians have each formed quite different points of view about the way of life of the Puritans. Of these three groups: the Filiopietists, Progressives, and Harvard historians, one was very pro-Puritan, another, very anti-Puritan, and the third falls somewhere in the middle. It is by examining all of …

…others, to say the least, believe that his idea of Puritanism is flawed. Although determining whether the Puritans made a positive or negative contribution to society is all but a concrete process, understanding all three views of them can help to gather information of the true history ofAmerica. The understanding of these different viewpoints gives Americans the chance to research and gain knowledge and insight into how the founders of America both lived and thought.