I'm probably not to be trusted on this review. I doubt I'm the target audience for this book. I knew nothing about the book going in, and I didn't pick it up, read the jacket, and say to myself: I really have to read this book.

Instead, this book was recommended to me. I'm a sucker for recommendations. New rule, though: I'm only going to accept recommendations if the person doing the recommending has actually read the book. That didn't happen this time.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, let's talk about the book.

It's actually a rather fascinating story. About King Philip's War. Which has almost nothing to do with the Mayflower. I mean, sure, the Mayflower brought the first permanent settlement of European colonizers to America, and without any settlements, none of the rest would have happened as it did. And the author does talk a bit about the Mayflower. But only as an introduction to the good stuff. If you want truth in advertising, this book should be called Philip. Or perhaps Plymouth. Maybe even Pilgrims. But Mayflower? I dunno. It feels like a bait and switch.

But as I said, once you get past the boring beginning, in which the Mayflower and the initial Pilgrims are discussed, it starts to get interesting. First we hear the story of Philip's father. Or was it his grandfather? Great-grandfather? Hm. I really did read this, but it took me over a month to wade through it. So yeah. Some ancestor of Philip. Okay. Fine. I just looked it up. It was his father. And his name was Massasoit. He was the leader of the Wampanoag tribe. And without his intervention, the Pilgrims likely wouldn't have survived their second winter.

But it turns out that, even though history has been written entirely by intruders, and the natives have left no written narrative of that time period, Massasoit wasn't acting entirely out of altruism. He saw the English as a way to increase his power among other tribes.

And there were a lot of parallels between what he did and what his son ended up doing fifty-some years later. At least in their motivations. Only instead of saving many of the English, he kills many of them. Yeah. Long story, I know. But here's the cool part: you get a great summary of the book in the 5-page preface, including the author's admission that he didn't set out to write a book about the Mayflower but about King Philip's War.

So, as someone who didn't really come for the story of the Mayflower, and who definitely didn't come for the story of Philip, but nonetheless found the latter fascinating, I still enjoyed the book for various reasons probably only tangentially related to the purpose of the author. Especially from about the second half on where it starts telling stories of the people involved in the war, trying to explain their viewpoints, their desires, and their motivations.

I really liked how nuanced the book is. There are no heroes and not really even any villains. Each character is trying to do what he or she (yes, there were some native female leaders who at least put in an appearance in the book) feels is best, and the author does a great job showing us not just their actions but also, for at least the main players, their motivations. Yes, there were people who shine in the book. One of these is Benjamin Church, and yes, most of what we know about him is from autobiographical tall tales he wrote. But according to him, he had some pretty close calls, and he emerged victorious from them thanks, he says, to his God's watchful eye. Also, as happens in wars, there are people who make decisions out of fear, stereotyping, and even malice. That happened on both sides, but the author showed that in many cases the natives tended to be the more compassionate warriors, while the English tended to the more ruthless side of the coin. Perhaps that balance was only shown to disabuse us as modern readers of the idea that we are automatically and unquestionably civilized while the natives are automatically and unquestionably barbaric. Nathaniel Philbrick does a good job of showing that each side is composed entirely of humans, with the potential both for kindness and savagery.

Another thing that struck me, and it probably says more about me than about the book or the author, was that, in the context of reading about a war over three centuries after it happened, everybody dies. Many are killed in the war. But even those who survive the war end up dead. And while the author doesn't relate the final death of every character, he does it often enough for the more important ones that it feels almost strange to be reading a gripping narrative, eagerly anticipating a narrow escape from death, and then, amazingly, the character outwits fate, only to die three pages (and perhaps three decades) later. It's a strange perspective, especially coming from a background of reading fiction more often than history. For me, at least, that seemed to imbue the book with a certain sense of futility. Well, not the book. Life itself. What struggles do you or I have today that will be of any meaning in another three centuries? Will you or I survive our challenges? Or will we too end up dead from one cause or another? Ah, the joys of nihilism. But that was my perspective. The author never made that point and probably never intended it.

I also really enjoyed what the author said in his afterword. How most histories of that time period were written from the English perspective, and how the tale from the native tribes has never really been told to the larger cultural audience. He explicitly states the challenges of reconstructing a narrative that will undoubtedly be colored by modern interpretations, but still calls on those who feel they can tell the story from that perspective to do so.

I feel as a white American that I have no real understanding of the history, thought processes, and culture of the thousands of native American tribes. A huge percentage of them were wiped out by disease and war, and many of those remaining have been pushed aside and silenced. When you realize that Manifest Destiny is a myth, it makes you a little sad to think of what was lost. And once something is lost, especially to history, it is quite possible that it may never be recovered.

MUST READ!! Even if you're not a history buff, you will benefit from finally hearing the true story of the roots of this country. Philbrick bridges the gap between the prevailing ideals of this time, the first being the sweet story- of the pilgrims and natives sitting down for turkey and indian corn and pie, trading goods and stories alike, the second being the idea that those brutal English arrived and forced the natives off their land- Bad English, Bad! Of course, it's much more complicated than that and Philbrick does an amazing job of telling the story without being biased toward one group or the other. What was amazing to discover was that the line wasn't even drawn so distinctly between the two groups.
Ultimately, I believe this is a story about the human condition. How we are all fundamentally the same regardless of background or race.
What most resonated with me while reading this, is how much these people were able to live through without just completely falling apart. I mean, in today's society we get upset if our cable goes out or we need therapy because we can't make our relationships work, or someone shoots someone on the highway for cutting them off. The hardship that both the pilgrims and the natives had to handle is not even comparable! Disease, starvation, and to lose a child is the most gut-wrenching ordeal imaginable and so many had to go through this more than once.
Not to scare anyone off though, this book is not all doom and gloom. There are so many moments of surprise and even funny nuggets of history. And if you live or have ever lived in the New England area you will have a special connection to this historical era.
This book is especially relevant in an election year, when we need to rememember the people who began this country. And regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, the important thing to remember is that these people were independent thinkers! They didn't have the mind-numbing media telling them what to think or politicians giving them false promises inside fancy speeches. Funny how the key word today is "Change" and that's just what the Pilgrims were searching for, the difference is that they were faithful and knew exactly how they wanted to live, were willing to risk everything for it, and did. Today we hear the word "Change" and applaud with no clue what's behind it, what the implications in that word are.... because, I'm sure as many of the pilgrims would attest, not all change is good.

This narrative history of the sailing of the Mayflower, the establishment of a religious community, relations with a native population and the disagreements that led to total war is a myth breaking account not intended for the faint of heart. Philbrick painstakingly describes how a mostly positive political relationship between Pilgrim leader Edward Winslow and Wampanoag sachem Massasoit dissolved into war with their sons, Josiah Winslow and Philip, leading the combatants. It only took 55 years (1620-1675) and a succeeding generation for the ‘alliance’ to disintegrate into chaos and bloodshed - a harbinger of future relations between the colonists and Native Americans reaching present day. The contemporary reader will find Philbrick’s discourse regarding slavery to be particularly interesting.