I just got a late notice from the library that stated: "The following library materials [Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War] are 14 days overdue. Please return these items as soon as possible so that others may enjoy them."

Well, they just got one eeensy thing wrong: no one's going to be enjoying this book.

Perhaps I'm not speaking from experience, as I found myself unable to finish the delightful snooze-fest, but I'm trying out my theory that books also follow The Movie Rule. What's The Movie Rule you ask? It's my own special scientific rule, thoroughly tested by Me, and backed with tons of anecdotal evidence, that states: If a movie is not interesting in the first ten minutes, it's not gonna be". (You can test it too! To get started, just rent Hollow Man or Autumn in New York).

I know what you're thinking: how can I test the theory on books if I don't read the whole book to see if it gets better. Well, one way is to trick someone else into reading it, then see how they liked it. This would work if I valued anyone's opinion as much as my own. As it stands, however, there is no valid way to test it unless I bite the bullet and read the book myself. And in the name of Science I totally would, but, you see, it's overdue.

Published 2006
3.5
Great American History lesson. I never realized how much was left out in school. I found it very interesting! Because of all the dates and characters I want to listen to it again.

I just finished Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

How have I missed out on Nathaniel Philbrick's writing? I really enjoyed his writing style and he really seems to know his stuff.

Mayflower is of course about the voyage the Pilgrims took in 1620 to come to America from England. I learned a lot about the voyage and the Pilgrims' founding of Plymouth while listening to this audiobook. Everyone hears about the first Thanksgiving, but I didn't know about the various wars and struggles they had against various Indian tribes (primarily the Pokanoket tribe). Nor did I know very much about the Pilgrims William Bradford and Miles Standish (among others), or of the Indians Massasoit and Squanto (among others).

This book was very well researched, and very well written by Philbrick, but the only complaint I have about it is that it got quite heavy handed with all the Indian names and tribal names, and it got confusing at times following along. Other than that, it was a very enjoyable read.

Another review that seems to have disappeared into the ether!

I was absolutely fascinated by this story of the lives of the Pilgrims - their early exile to Holland in order to worship according to their faith, the decision to set up a colony in North America, and what transpired over 3 generations of diplomacy and war with the Native Americans. It was clear from the start that the colonies needed a relationship with the native peoples in order to survive, and it was also clear that this relationship would end in war.

The most exciting aspect of this book was its setting - Southern New England in the 17th century. We see the emergence and development of the places in which we now live - Providence, Boston, Cape Cod, Newport - and can follow the settlers as they journey among these places on foot in all seasons, imagine the landscape as it existed prior to the development of the cities and roads and any form of transportation.

The treatment of the native peoples, the overly-severe and unjust system of justice, and the escalation of war are eerily familiar to those of us who live in this same place 4 centuries later. We have not come very far, have not yet become enlightened as to how to live in peace and accept one another's differences, or to avoid war.

I will soon go to visit the Great Swamp, and read the monuments that commemorate the "massacre" or "victory" that took place there. I've driven past the markers hundreds of times, but never knew.....

Read this book! You will not be able to put it down after the pilgrims land on the shores of Cape Cod, I promise you.

I also recommend his book "In the heart of the sea: the tragedy of the Whaleship Essex".

Philbrick tells two stories, one of the Pilgrims, devout separatist Puritans who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 seeking religious freedom and peace; another of succeeding generations with less worthy motivations. Philbrick is at his very best describing the first generation, their sacrifice and hardships, their faith and fortitude, their reliance on the help of the Indians and their striving for cooperation and peaceful coexistence. But before long their high ideals began to erode. Then in the 1630’s and early 1640’s many thousands of less principled Puritans settled in New England. As the colonies grew exponentially so did the demand for more land for crops, pasture and timber. The colonists became increasingly concerned with economic enrichment and used their religion to justify it at the Indians expense. The Indians too were becoming dependent on and corrupted by European goods. Both sides engaged in duplicity and mayhem. Alliances were constantly made and broken between Indian and colonial communities. A chaotic web of relationships ensued that culminated in King Philip’s War in 1675, an extremely bloody conflict that also devastated the New England economy.

Philbrick’s narrative of the Pilgrims reads like a novel but gives way to a more typical history as he recounts the numerous battles and figures involved in this first major Indian war. We see how the Puritans decimated the Indian population, killing thousands and shipping thousands more off as slaves for profit. They won the Indian’s land but they would lose the freedom from the Crown that their fathers had sought. A few years later King James II appointed a royal governor for New England. The colonies now had to rely on England to recover from the war and ensure their continued expansion. Thus the stage was set for more wars against the Indians, wars against the French and ultimately for war against their homeland 100 years later. In just 55 years from the landing at Plymouth to the outbreak of King Philip’s War New England grew from a small band of separatist Puritans to tens of thousands of colonists who recreated the violent world they left behind in Europe and whose descendants would in turn rebel against the authority their ancestors had escaped.

Audible.com 12 hours 37 min. Narrated by George Guidall (B)

How did America begin? I feel I had an above average concrete knowledge of the background of the the story of the Pilgrim's (Puritans) and their desire to find a place to worship God free from the restrictions of the Anglican church. This desire led them to leave first England and then Holland for a new home in the new world. Their trip across the Atlantic on the ship Mayflower, and their first years as colonists was fraught with danger, decisions and death. Philbrick takes the black and white facts and creates a vivid picture of the actual people and places that captures an important period in American history.
I quite enjoyed the review of Philbrick's book by author Rick Riordan posted Nov. 24, 2021. He gives a great summary and observations of the second half of the book.
This book covers the first 50 years of the Plymouth colony, and I was most interested in the second part that dealt with King Philip's War with which I was completely ignorant.
This is an introductory look at the first and most devastating war in America's history. I appreciate the firsthand accounts by a captured minister's wife as prisoner of Philip about which she later wrote a book. There is also much detail taken from Benjamin Church who was somewhat a "loner" in his opinion of the Natives and their usefulness in defeating Phillip. Church played a major role in fighting and ending the war. There was no white washing of the brutality of war. "Mayflower" is another great history book written by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Good research here and lots of historical facts about the Mayflower, the early days of settlement, and the increasing tensions with the native inhabitants of the New World, but the presentation was generally unimaginative. It took the form of a plodding linear trudge through time. It was at times amazing to consider what the pilgrims went through and what they put the Native Americans through, but it wasn’t until the final chapter that the author pulled the pieces together and gave a narrative story and POV. Often I didn’t know quite where it was all going or how to interpret what was happening. So, in a sense, by the time I “got it,” “it” was already over and I kind of missed the full flavor of the events. One thing that didn’t escape me: the Pilgrims were self absorbed, clueless savages who were probably just as bad if not worse that the heathens they detested, cheated, defiled, persecuted, enslaved, quartered, beheaded, and ultimately destroyed in true genocidal fashion. In other words, they're kind of like people today, just a little rougher around the edges. This is not to say that the book falsely potrayed Indians as noble savages, either. But it doesn't take much imagination to see that the religiously inspired were resoundingly unholy and inhumane.

On the positive side, I thought this book was well researched and clearly written. I also valued that this book brought to light a realistic view of how the Pilgrims approached the Native American people, land, and resources.

However, I found the book to be less about the voyage of the Mayflower and the overall life of the Pilgrims settling Plymouth Colony, and more of a factual recitation of the continuous conflict that ensued between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. The book is less like typical narrative non-fiction with a handful of developed characters and engaging events, and more like a textbook with a chronological account that includes many individuals and a stream of activity.

I listened to the audio version of this book and, although I do like detailed non-fiction, I found myself increasing the audio speed in order to power through the many details of the military conflict in the last several chapters.

I think this book would appeal most to those with a strong interest in the specific details of the conflict between the arriving Pilgrims and the residing Native Americans.

Five stars for an engaging read, well-written and hard to put down. My knowledge of the Pilgrims started near zero, mainly with the myth of Thanksgiving. It is now much broader and enticing me to read more.

My focus on Native Americans has always been in the West. But before the Europeans arrived, the whole continent was occupied, even after the majority was wiped out by plagues. The diseases spread so rapidly that most Natives died without ever seeing a European, as explained by the books "1491" and "1493" by Charles C. Mann. The New England Natives were also decimated by disease before the Pilgrims arrived (from other European visitors), though enough remained to engage in a significant war.

Highly recommended!

This was my second outing with Nathaniel Philbrick's work, and I must admit he is becoming one of my favourite history writers. Mayflower was throughly brilliant and keen in it's historical account. What attracted me to this book was my vague knowledge of who the pilgrims coming to America in the early 1600's really were. I wanted to deepen my understanding of this period and people in history, beyond what I learned in elementary school about the first Thanksgiving, which looking back was an outrageously cutesy attempt at a serious time of the American desire of religious freedom. Towards the end of the book Philbrick comments how the pilgrims in American history conscious are briefly mentioned before jumping forward a hundred years to the American Revolution where the real meat of the American spirit begins to present itself. I now understand the American Revolution to be an extension of the American spirit the pilgrims first began trying to colonize a new part of the world searching for true purity in the form of freedom. It was exciting to explore the likes of William Bradford, Miles Standish, Massasoit, Benjamin Church and the gritty war entitled King Phillips War among the many other fascinating figures and historical events. I look forward to reading the next of Philbrick's historical works!

Nathaniel Philbrick's book "Mayflower" appears at first glance to be merely a recounting of the Pilgrims journey to the New World and their miraculous survival that first winter culminating in the first Thanksgiving, that's all here, but takes up only about 80 pages of the 450+ page book. In reality, Philbrick offers the reader a complete history of Plymouth Colony from 1620-1691 (when it was merged into Massachusets Bay colony) The bulk of the narrative focuses on King Phillip's War (1675-76) for my money one of the most fascinating and under-reported armed conflicts in American History. Philbrick chronicles the main engagements of the war, in a very evenhanded way, praising the colonists bravery when warranted, while at the same time not being afraid to call them the savage butchers that they clearly were. He also does a great job of guiding the reader through understand the complex maze of ever-changing alliances between the colonists and the various native tribes of the region, and analysing how the conflict's long-term consequences helped shape America today.

An appropriate book to read this time of year.