This book explores the ideological origins of the Puritan migration to and experience in America, and shows how Puritans believed that their removal to New England fulfilled prophetic apocalyptic and eschatological visions. An apocalyptic ideology of history, as a mode of historical thought, enabled Puritans to reconstruct their removal to America within the confines of sacred, ecclesiastical history. By tracing the ideological origins of the Puritan migration within the context of the English apocalyptic tradition, Dr Zakai shows how Puritans transformed the premises of that tradition by rejecting the notion of England as God's elect nation and by conferring that title upon the American wilderness. The Puritan migration is analyzed further within the wider context of Western colonization of America. Dr Zakai shows that the unique characteristics of the Puritan settlement in New England derived from identification with the 'Errand of the Church of the Wilderness' as described in the Book of Revelation.

"These chapters are the most sustained examination yet written of the Puritan concept of history as an apocalyptic event occurring outside of chronological time." Historical Journal of Massachusetts

"This is an exceedingly scholarly work which attempts to explain the religious or ideological origins of the Puritan migraton to America during the early seventeenth century....this work is a significant study in the history of ideas....One of the chief merits of Dr. Zakai's book is its treatment of the Puritan eschatological and apocalyptic visions in the context of this Judaic-Christian tradition and in a meaningful and well-constructed conceptual framework....Exile and Kingdom is worthy addition to the studies of Puritan eschatological and apocalyptic visions in early modern England." Catholic Historical Review

"Zakai has provided a clear exposition of the Puritan adoption of apocalyptic theology and how that vision contributed to the establishment of New England. On the whole our historiography benefits from his contribution to the history of ideas." Albion

"...there is much to praise in this book. Its strength lies in close and critical readings of key texts in the millennial tradition. Zakai's mastery of these obscure documents is impressive; his argument for their significance in the American context is cogent. Further, Zakai's distinction between the two models of migration will most certainly prove helpful to students of Puritan ideology and the politics of American identity." Janice Knight, Journal of American History

"...an intriguing, challenging book with a close textual analysis and a focus on 'geographies of the mind' that bear important implications for understanding early Purital society and its putative theocracy." Jon Butler, Journal of Interdisciplinary History