Very interesting if you are looking for more information on the Mayflower journey and the details (so many details) that happened after they landed at Plymouth Rock. It did get a bit long and drawn out.

„Mayflower. Opowieść o początkach Ameryki” stawia pytanie: jak zaczęła się Ameryka? I odpowiada na nie w sposób absolutnie fascynujący. Warto zaznaczyć, że tytułowy statek to jedynie początek, wskazówka, bo sama historia opisana przez Nathaniela Philbricka skupia się na procesie wykuwania nowego miasta, państwa i społeczeństwa na nowej nieznanej ziemi, w znoju i tych krótkich chwilach wywalczonego pokoju oraz krwawej, bezlitosnej wojny. Autor obala mity i ukazuje, jak pierwsi koloniści nazywani czasem religijnymi separatystami i ekstremistami, unikali jak ognia teokracji i dążyli w kierunku państwa, którym ostatecznie stały się Stany Zjednoczone. Bo ta podróż, tak historyczna jak i filozoficzna, nie zaczyna się wcale od Deklaracji Niepodległości i mów Franklina, Adamsa, Jeffersona i Waszyngtona. Nie. Ta podróż zaczyna się już w 1620 roku, właśnie tutaj, od marzenia, od przeprawy, od statku Mayflower, ale przede wszystkim od tych ludzi, którzy porzucili wszystko w imię wolności, by stworzyć dom po drugiej stronie oceanu – pielgrzymów Nowego Świata.

Wspaniała, wciągająca lektura nie tylko dla miłośników historii!

We Americans all have some vision of the Pilgrims, from Plymouth Rock to the first Thanksgiving, to what the colonial world looked like. The elementary school version--which has remarkable staying power for many--is the image of religious Pilgrims seeking religious freedom in a new world, nurtured by the help of the natives, giving us our idyllic First Thanksgiving. The revised standard version from the '60s focuses on the decimation of the native populations, the rapacious capitalists among the first settlers, and perhaps the Pilgrims actual record of religious intolerance.

Into these competing versions comes Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (2006). He traces events from the development of Puritan communities in England, their migration first to the Netherlands, and finally their hope of establishing an ideal religious community in America.

The Pilgrims had come to America not to conquer a continent, but to re-create their modest communities in Scrooby and Leiden. When they arrived at Plymouth in December 1620 and found it emptied of people, it seemed as if God had given them exactly what they were looking for. But as they quickly discovered during that first terrifying fall and winter, New England was far from uninhabited. There were still plenty of Native people, and to ignore or anger them was to risk annihilation. The Pilgrims' religious beliefs played a dominant role in the decades ahead, but it was their deepening relationship with the Indians that turned them into Americans.

By forcing the English to improvise, the Indians prevented Plymouth Colony from ossifying into a monolithic cult of religious extremism. For their part, the Indians were profoundly influenced by the English and quickly created a new and dynamic culture full of Native and Western influences. For a nation that has come to recognize that one of its greatest strengths is its diversity, the first fifty years of Plymouth Colony stand as a model of what America might have been from the very beginning.

By the midpoint of the seventeenth century, however, the attitudes of many of the Indians and English had begun to change. With only a fraction of their original homeland remaining, more and more young Pokanokets claimed it was time to rid themselves of the English. The Pilgrims' children, on the other hand, coveted what territory the Pokanokets still possessed and were already anticipating the day when the Indians had, through the continued effects of disease and poverty, ceased to exist. Both sides had begun to envision a future that did not include the other.

This leads to a major section of the book, on King Philip's War. Philbrick paints a fascinating picture of some of the personalities and cultural forces that defined the war, tensions not only between English settlers and natives, but within each group as well.

The nuanced vision offered of early New England was very interesting, particularly the earliest discovery and the war, was fascinating. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the whole thing was the epilogue, from which the quotation above was taken, in which Philbrick not only brought together for summary and analysis everything that had come before, but also looked at the process of mythologizing that occurred in the intervening centuries, with each generation reinterpreting the stories for its own time. There was even, obliquely, an interesting implied (or at least, lightly stated) analogy to our current "war on terror."

Although I've only lived here a year and a half, it was also interesting to get a glimpse at the history of this area that is currently my home. Even for those of you living outside of New England, though, I recommend this book highly.

"Instead of the story we already know, it becomes the story we need to know."

This story had very little to do with the voyage of the Mayflower or even the Mayflower Compact but is indeed an in depth "Story of Courage, Community, and War". Growing up I had learned the popular version of the story of the Pilgrims. They left Europe seeking religious freedom and after a difficult voyage on the Mayflower settled in New England where they struggled to survive and the Native Americans came to their aide. There was a celebration with the Pilgrims and Native Americans that we now recognize as Thanksgiving and celebrate every November.

Plymouth Colony consisted of more than just Pilgrims. They were joined on the Mayflower by others who were not part of their religious group. The "Strangers". Half of the colonists died the first year and another ship brought additional colonists to Plymouth who were not Pilgrims. Although the Pilgrims came to New England seeking religious freedom they were not very tolerant of others as the Quakers learned. Individuals were executed for crimes that were a violation of their beliefs.

I have heard stories of how Native Americans were decimated by disease brought over from Europe but didn't realize the scope or how soon this happened. I also did not know about the many different tribes that lived in New England. One of these was the Pokenokets whose sachem (chief) was named Massasoit who formed and allegiance with the Pilgrims in order to enhance his position with respect to rival tribes. Another Native American who appeared to be supportive of the Pilgrims was named Squanto and acted as a translator but he was motivated by his own Machiavellian schemes. Clearly the Native Americans were not just passive dupes to exploitation and domination by Europeans.

I had never heard of King Phillip's War. This was a 14 month conflict that nearly wiped out both the colonists and Native Americans. Phillip was the European name given to Massasoit's son and the reason he was called King Phillip was due to the fact that he apparently equated himself with King Charles. There was plenty of arrogance and stupidity on both sides and one has to wonder whether the war was inevitable.

If there is a hero in this story I think it would be Benjamin Church, principal aide to Plymouth’s governor, Josiah Winslow. Throughout the conflict he appears to have recognized that the Native Americans were humans and not savages. He was an advocate to use some of the tribes as allies. He was also against selling Native Americans into slavery.

This was an eye opening account of what life was really like in the earliest days of New England. It was brutal and we should be thankful that colonists and Native Americans did not totally wipe each other out due to their arrogance and stupidity.

Huh. Probably should have titled this Plymouth rather than Mayflower.

My primary excitement about this book related to the fact that I thought I was about to read an account of the pilgrims’ crossing on the Mayflower, and perhaps the ship itself. I thought this because, you know, the book is called Mayflower.

Unfortunately for me and others whose interests align with mine, this is largely an account of the Plymouth colony post-Mayflower journey. There is a little content about the actual voyage at the beginning of the book, but this is largely an account of the pilgrims’ lives after they made land and began to settle in Plymouth.

On that topic, Philbrick’s research is exceptionally thorough. This isn’t exactly true narrative nonfiction (Philbrick is much drier and less of a storyteller than most gifted narrative nonfiction authors), but it’s good information that is expressed relatively well.

To that end, I don’t love Philbrick’s style, but there’s no issue with quality or content presentation here. But I can’t get past the fact that if I choose to read a book called Mayflower, it really ought to be about The Mayflower. Again, the entire problem is easily fixed by titling the book as Plymouth or some such more accurate encapsulation if its content.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

I'm pretty sure Philbrick didn't pick this title. Very little of this book is about the Mayflower or the first Thanksgiving, or landing at Plymouth. It's really about "King Phillip's War" a 14 month protracted and bloody conflict between English settlers and Native American tribes that took place a generation or two after the Mayflower arrived. Philbrick states that this war was the impetus for his writing and the focus of his research in the very beginning of the book. I cannot blame him for the publisher's attempt to gerrymander this nonfiction work to sound and look like his successful tomes on nautical history.

That said, I was mildly disappointed that Philbrick didn't spend more time on the original settlers and the first Thanksgiving, as my knowledge of these events is still poor and dependent on grade-school- national-mythology-whitewashing. Most of the real estate in this book is taken up by inter-tribal politicking, ignorant colonial mindsets, and the inevitable bloodbath that results from the combination of these two. It lacks the narrative thru-line of In The Heart of the Sea, and other things I've enjoyed by Philbrick, and so was kind of tough to hang on to at times.

Still, beneficial for anyone looking for an attempt at a less biased view of the real origins of the United States.

http://joshuarigsby.com

This was just so hard for me to get through. Audio saved me for sure. It was worth reading with my book club friends; I'm glad they are so brave and will take on the difficult and the different. Way to go, girls!!

I think it's interesting that the first settlers really didn't care that much for freedom of religion for all. They seemed to want the freedom to impose their ideas on their society as a whole. As soon as they could they started laying down the religious dogma and tried to make everyone toe the line.

I am really glad that I have some understanding of who King Philip is and what King Philip's war was all about. Now I won't look like such a newb if the subject ever comes up.

I feel accomplished that I read an important book about the founding of my country. I have years of improvement still, but I took my medicine like a good girl.

Mayflower begins by telling the story of the Puritan pilgrims who immigrated to the Cape Cod area, aboard the famous boat, to found Plymouth colony. While continuing to tell Plymouth's evolving history, the book then broadens its purview to include the Native Americans in the area, analyzing their unique stories as well as their relationship with the pilgrims. The narrative concludes by expanding to a regional level, telling the story of King Philip's war and analyzing its impact while maintaining a focus on Plymouth and the Pequot tribe who lay at the center of the conflict.

Mayflower is a regional history. The book describes what life was like for pilgrims and Native Americans in 17th-century New England and recounts both significant and illustrative events. Philbrick's level of detail is quite impressive considering the scarcity of historical resources. It's even more impressive when considering the selective focus of those resources - the Native American experience must have been tough to capture with almost no first-hand accounts, but his final product truly builds an understanding of the Native American perspective and the diversity within it (though sometimes the best Philbrick can do is speculate).

More foundationally, though, Mayflower is a story about what it's like for people to live together. Of course, all human histories are like that; but this story is particularly important because it captures the liminal period right when 2 very different cultures collide for the first time. There's so much potential but so much unknown. War and peace suspiciously eye each other, difference and sameness dance and bicker, and fellow humans appear blurry as one tries to discern whether they're friends or monsters. The rules and norms of community, of life together, had been negotiated in each respective culture beforehand - now, though, they must be renegotiated amidst changed context. The historical stakes framing this moment were so high as well - it was in early 17th-century New England that U.S. American culture and identity began to congeal and take on a distinctive color, but it was still so malleable. The story is both a case study in cultural formation and integration as well as a repository of understanding about the contemporary United States.

While there are glimpses of beauty throughout, the story of Mayflower is one of failure. Neighbors did not live together well, nor would they after King Philip's war. But if we are to be good neighbors, allies, friends, and advocates for justice and goodness, then we've got to know what not to do and be, as well the reason that things are the way they are today. A cold, harsh, promising sliver of New England and the people which inhabited it have a lot to teach us in that regard.

"The moment any of them gave up on the difficult work of living with their neighbors, and all of the compromise, frustration, and detail that inevitably entailed, they risked losing everything."

Listened to Audio Version

The Pilgrims of Plimoth Plantation are part of the founding mythology of the US. But what most of us know, or at least remember, is Plymouth Rock, Thanksgiving, the Puritans, and then the Revolution. Maybe we remember that King Philip's War is a thing that happened, but we may be a bit hazy on the details. Probably we remember Squanto, the friendly Indian who taught the Pilgrims to grow corn.

Philbrick brings it all marvelously to life.

And in doing so, he restores the richness, complexity, and ambiguity of the real world.

The arrival of the Pilgrims wasn't the first contact New England Indians had with Europeans--and those earlier contacts had brought diseases the Native Americans had no previous encounter with. What had been a thickly settled region was now startlingly empty, with many whole villages wiped out by diseases that killed so many there weren't enough healthy people to care for the sick. There was, in fact, room for the Pilgrims--if they could learn to live with their neighbors, and their neighbors could learn to live with them.

Philbrick gives us the fascinating tale of how, for fifty years, the Pilgrims and the local Indian tribes, most notably the Pokanoket, under the leadership of Massasoit, built an often uneasy but mutually beneficial working relationship that benefited all the groupings involved. We see the ways the Indians and the English influenced each other, learned from each other, and helped each other.

And then we see how it all broke down, first under Massasoit's older son, Alexander, and then his younger son, Philip--as well as the sons and grandsons of the English founders, including Josiah Winslow, William Bradford, Benjamin Church, and others--engaged in a cascading series of poor decisions, failures of diplomacy, and failures to communicate.

All the peoples and cultures involved were more complex and interesting than the standard version, and that includes the Pilgrims, the Massachusetts Bay colony, and the different Indian tribes.

Highly recommended.

I bought this book.

When I’m about to start a history book and see that there are about 100 pages of Notes and Bibliography, I know I’m in for a comprehensive overview. When an author can combine that thoroughness with a great storytelling ability, then you may just have a classic in your hands. Nathaniel Philbrick came pretty close to that with this book, assuring it a snug spot in my top ten history books.

I can see why a few reviewers docked a star or two from their ratings. The title ‘Mayflower’ may be a bit misleading. If you’re looking for a nice story of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and the landing at Plymouth Rock, you’re in for a rude awakening. While those events are covered in just a few pages, what you get instead is the full fifty-six year story of how “New England” was conquered by the English… in all its gory details.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire were territories taken from the native inhabitants via unscrupulous land purchases and outright force. Philbrick notes how, instead of being the story we all think we already know, this is the story we all need to know. And once you know it, I find it hard to believe anyone can still have a romanticized image of America’s founding.

I’ve been reading about the plains tribes of North America (Lakota, Cheyenne, Osages, Navajo, Apaches, etc...) and their various wars against the expanding colonies. But I wanted to know about the original peoples of the territories comprising those 13 colonies. Was there one single indigenous power in the region now known as ‘New England’? How many tribes were there initially? What was their political structure? Has that information been lost? This book answers all of that, with its focus being mainly on southern New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island).

After reading this book, I was struck with the realization of how fast everything radically changed for the indigenous nations of the eastern coast of present-day United Sates. I’m in my mid-30s and my mom is in her mid-60s, so together we’ve lived 100 years. I don’t view that as very long at all.

So let’s do a little mental exercise and go through ‘New England’ history in one-hundred year increments.

In 1576, ‘New England’ native tribes were fully living according to their own way of life (a seasonal settlement pattern -> mix of subsistence agriculture, including large corn plantations with slash and burn techniques and countless seasonal rituals which kept them on the move, along with more traditional hunting and gathering). By 1575, the native tribes were well aware of white explorers, seeing their first Italian explorer in 1524.

…one hundred years later…
In 1676, the ‘New England’ native tribes were engaged in an all-out war for survival against the colonists.

…one hundred years later…
In 1776, most of ‘New England’ was already fully conquered by the English. I’m simultaneously reading ‘1776’ by David McCullough, and it’s striking to see that only 100 years after the events of ‘Mayflower’ (the conclusion of Metacom’s War in 1676), how Boston and New England were at the heart of events in the first year of the American Revolution (Bunker Hill, Boston Tea Party, Siege at Boston). McCullough notes how the British soldiers arriving in New England were surprised at the prosperity of those early colonists. Far from the crowded European countries, the American colonies were spacious and flourishing.

…one hundred years later…
In 1876, ‘New England’ was the main driving force of America’s dominance during the 19th Century Industrial Revolution, with the highest literacy rates in the world, the best education and the most industrial innovations (I’m also reading ‘The Battle Cry of Freedom’ which drives this point home). New England was thriving like almost no other place on earth at the time.

It really hits home that these successes came not in spite of, but because of this initial violence. It could have not happened without the domination and genocide of the natives tribes as described in this book.

There are some great notes on indigenous warfare being more about bravery and honor rather than body count. During the Pequot war, the Narragansetts were surprised at the level of brutality of the English, when hundreds of Pequot men, women and children were slaughtered in one of the first true genocidal acts of the colonists.

Philbrick notes how in native wars, only a handful of warriors would be killed at each major battle. In this event, the Narraganstett warriors (although at the time allied with the English) angrily protested the slaughter, claiming “it is too furious, and slays too many men”. The Narragansetts had attempted to get assurances that no women and children would be killed before the battle. But none of those assurances were upheld.

But far from being solely the victims of colonialism, I learned that the various tribes put up a strong fight, with hundreds of colonists losing their lives in the wars. Even a full year after the beginning of Metacom’s war, it looked like the native tribes might win. If it wasn’t for some key alliances that could not be made, the natives would have won. But unfortunately some native tribes aligned with the British (because they were further away from the British encroaching on their lands), like the powerful Mohawks of upstate New York. They had a long standing dislike of many New England tribes. If the Mohawks had agreed to join Metacom with his existing alliance against the English, the colonists would have lost. History would have been changed forever. The other determining factor was the European’s ability to get constant re-supplies of ammo and food from Britain to sustain the war effort. While the Pokanokets were struggling to amass enough food for the coming winter after the English burned down one thousand acres of native grown corn… a corn field as far as the eye could see.

I sometimes hear the justification that whites won the war fairly, and therefore are entitled to the spoils of war (the land). But as I’ve learned over and over again, Europeans didn’t have a strong sense of honor in warfare. For example, on Page 252, Philbrick writes how in 1675, Winslow assures any native who surrenders would be granted amnesty. Several hundred natives then surrendered in Plymouth, but Winslow reneged. He sends ALL of them to Spain as slaves. All throughout the war, hundreds of native men who could be potentially warriors, were shipped off as slaves in the Caribbean. Massasoit’s son, the Chief of the Pokanokets, was beheaded and his wife and son were sent to the Caribbean as slaves.

We learn how after that first winter in the Plymouth colony, half of the pilgrims and mercenaries (and their families) were dead, mostly due to starvation and sickness. Without the agricultural assistance provided by Squanto, a Patuxet man, the early colony would not have survived at all. It was only many decades later, after pilgrim survival no longer depended upon friendship with the natives, the grown children of the original pilgrims started to view the indigenous population as an impediment to their future prosperity. Their focus soon became about stealing or taking the natives’ land however possible.

I have only one slightly negative comment. While Nathanial Philbrick stays as neutral as possible, or even writes with contempt at times regarding the English’s actions, he did look for a hero in Benjamin Church, and in the last few pages of the book writes about Church being an exemplary American caught in an impossible situation. But given that Benjamin Church captured and sent hundreds of native warriors as slaves, I can’t be down with that conclusion. It left a slight sour taste in my mouth, but the book was so good that I can’t knock it too much. I suppose Europeans need at least one good character when looking back at the formative years of the U.S. I’m sure there were many white colonists who wanted nothing to do with the war… we’ll likely never hear their stories. They may have joined native tribes and lived their lives that way. Or just returned to England. Certainly Roger Williams of Rhode Island tried to separate himself from all the bloodshed. But even he wanted more and more indigenous lands as the years went on.

The other slight scruple I have is with the discussion whereby Philbrick and other scholars note that there were 56 years of peace between natives and pilgrims, before the all-out, genocidal race war that ensued (Metacom’s War in 1675). He mentions that in those 56 years, there were real examples of a possible alternate future of peaceful coexistence.

While I do believe there were many good examples of coexistence, I don’t think the ‘56-years of peace’ line really holds up, given Philbrick’s own account. This peace was only with Massasoit and his Pokanoket tribe (forebears of the modern day Wampanoag tribe). In fact, fighting and conflict happened almost right away with the Nausets getting in a shootout (arrow-fight / gun-fight) with the Pilgrims in the ‘First Encounter’. The Pilgrims and mercenaries proceed to rob massive amounts of corn they found hidden (an obvious storage spot used by the Nausets for the coming winter). Stealing and outright violence were the very first interactions and they would presage what was to come.

By 1623, just three years after landing, Miles Standish, the pilgrim’s military leader, invited two Massachusetts warriors (Pecksuot and Wituwamat) to lunch and while they were eating, brutally attacked them, stabbing them to death. Other innocent natives were ordered killed as a show of force near present-day Boston. The Massachusetts natives started calling the Pilgrims ‘wotawquenange’, or ‘cutthroats’ after that incident.

In 1637, the genocidal Pequot War occurred in present-day Connecticut, led by several veterans of Europe’s bloody Thirty Years War.

In 1676, the all-out race war ensued.

That doesn’t look like a 56-year peace to me. That looks more like constant warfare with the natives, and a 56-year tenuous peace between the Pokanokets and the Plymouth colony.

But overall this book is well researched so you learn tons of small but interesting details (like the native remedy for wounds; oak leaves over a gunshot wound...which an english captive confirmed works). There are great maps interspersed throughout with some pictures which adds some context to the story. Philbrick is fair to the native perspective and doesn’t sugar coat atrocities, like when speaking about Captain Samuel Mosley who, in official documentation to Boston officials, bragged about sending a captive Indian woman to be torn to pieces by dogs, on some real-life Ramsay Bolton ish. The natives hated him more than anyone in all of New England.

The book is filled with incredible characters and several indigenous leaders come to life, including Massasoit, Squanto, Metacom, and the Narragansett Chief Miantonomi. I think it's important to remember their struggles and their names.

What more can I say? Philbrick is showing em’ how it’s done. Tackling a large and sensitive topic, he did exhaustive research, basically reading everything ever written on the topic and then synthesizing it into a well paced, action packed, tragic story. All I can say is bravo. This is how to properly tackle native american history by a white writer. I’m looking forward to reading Philbrick’s book on the fight at the Greasy Grass.

Non-fiction about the Pilgrims, including their journey to form a religious colony in New England, the first Thanksgiving, the early years of the Plymouth settlement and how they survived, and their relationships with the Indians, which were friendly at first, but deteriorated into war in subsequent generations. The first half of the book focuses on the arrival at Plymouth, the strong personalities of the inhabitants, and establishment of the colony, and the second half follows the next generations into King Philip’s War (1675-1677), an episode not often covered in our history classes, which set a sad precedent for how race relations between the settlers and the native population would proceed well into the nineteenth century.

This book clears up numerous myths, which unfortunately continue to be perpetuated in elementary schools around America. We often skip from the Jamestown and Plymouth settlements to the American Revolution but miss a good bit of history in between. This book attempts to fill part of this gap. I thought the first half of the book flowed easily, while the second half gets extremely detailed in a blow-by-blow account of the King Philip’s war. I felt Philbrick did a good job of showing the motivations of the primary players, which I appreciated, especially considering the lengthy passage of time.

Philbrick provides depth to this period in history through thorough research, logical assumptions, and direct story-telling, albeit limited by the dearth of source material, particularly of the native people. The author illuminates the complexities of the period in an informative and enlightening manner that gave me a deeper appreciation of era. The book includes an extensive bibliography, notes on each chapter, and remarkable maps. Content warnings include descriptions of executions, ritual torture, and other war-related violence. Recommended to readers of early American history.

I can also recommend another of Philbrick's books: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).

An illuminating look at the Plymouth colony, starting with the story of the journey of the Mayflower and continuing through the end of the conflict known as King Phillip's War. There was so much I did not know about this story and Phillbrick really brings this era to life. My education in school, maybe like many others, did not give us many facts about the Pilgrims, and this book filled in many of the facts.

We learn not only about the white settlers, but also the Native Americans and how they lived in the 17th century. This is highly recommended for those interested in the early history of colonial life in 17th century North America.