Historical Dictionary of the Puritans

Reader's review:
Do you get your Levellers mixed up with your Diggers with your Ranters? Or do you just need a quick reference book on major figures, movements or themes in Puritanism (and its opponents)? This is a very fine resource for you.
Galen Johnson (author of a very well received book on John Bunyan) and Charles Pastoor are colleagues at John Brown University, and have a strong command of their topic. In 400 pages they provide excellent introduction essay, a time line, hundreds of concise and well-organized entries, and some good bibliography.
The entries range from the famous (Richard Baxter, John Owen etc.) to the fairly obscure (where else will you find an entry for Thomas Wood?). Key topics are wisely selected for entries as well: worship, vestments, women, etc.
My only complaints involve the publisher. This is volume 79 in a series of historic dictionaries by Sacrecrow Press, that include volumes of socialism, sufiism, and the Olympic movement! Some are written by the leading authorities in their field: Land on Seventh Day Adventism, Hans Hillderbrand on the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, etc. I odn;'t know how the other volumes are packaged, but Scarecrow has given this one cliched cover art that diminishes the impression of its scholarly weight. I also wish they had included brief bibliography at the bottom of each entry, instead of more general bibliography at the end of the book.
But the biggest mystery to me is the price. It is prohibitive for most readers, other than libraries. For the same price, for example, you can by Soli Deo Gloria's better packaged edition of Benjamin Brook's old standard, Lives of the Puritans, which at 1550 pages is nearly four times as long.
In any case, this is a very fine volume and will reward frequent use for those who aren't scared off by the high price or the mediocre cover design.