Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War [Paperback]

"Mayflower" is the story, not just of a ship and the Pilgrims who sailed on it, but of a Pilgrim people, those who followed them, the Natives with whom they met and interacted and the process they initiated that would mold America for centuries to come.

Author Nathaniel Philbrick tells the story of The Pilgrims and the "Strangers" who traveled with them to the New World, the Pilgrims in search of religious freedom and the "Strangers", the non-Pilgrim passengers of the Mayflower, who came looking for merely a new world in which to live. The life they found was cruel, brutish and short. Most of the immigrants, both the initial and subsequent waves, died in a relatively short time. Their salvation was cooperation with Indians who befriended them, taught them how to cope in their new environment and used them for their own purposes. Far from the noble natives of legend, those who allied with the English, who populated the original Plimouth Plantation that grew into the Massachusetts Bay Colony, looked on their interaction as an alliance intended to give them advantages over competing Indian tribes. Eventually the English-Indian intercourse would create a society not quite English and not quite Indian, but a Middle Ground in which each culture would blend into something unique to that place and time.

Much of "Mayflower" is devoted to an exposition of King Phillip's War, an Colonial-Indian war of 1675-1678 in which the English were drawn into Native warfare by entangling alliances which forced them to aid the tribes whom they had befriended. Although little known today, Philbrick points out that, in terms of percentage of the population killed and property destroyed, it was much more devastating to the European-American states that would inhabit America than any subsequent war.

In focusing on the first fifty years of English settlement in North America, this book points out how our nation started on a course of interaction with native cultures that would persist as we conquered the West and may still be with us today. From Massachusetts Bay forward, Euro and Native Americans would use each other for their own purposes, for good and ill. The story of the Pilgrims and Massachusetts Bay would play out whenever advanced cultures would meet less advanced ones, whether in America, The Philippines, Vietnam and, perhaps, even in Afghanistan.

Although the names and the story line are hard to follow because we are so unfamiliar with them, this is an important book to read and understand because it shows how the tree of American history was bent as a twig and grew along the same angle. Whether you are a student of early New England colonial history or American history in general, "Mayflower" fills an important niche in the American Saga.

I wasn't sure what to expect from 'Mayflower'. It had been rated as one of the best books of the year by a number of book sellers, but sometimes reading an historical novel can be quite dry and boring- who knew it could be this interesting!

To begin with, I am certain so much of what is written in this book is unknown to most people. The story of the Pilgrims has become so commonplace and hackneyed that I don't think many of us even realize what the Pilgrims were really trying to accomplish by immigrating to North America. This book puts to rest any misconceptions, romantic notions or misperceptions about this group of people called the Pilgrims. It attests to the brutal nature of the world during that time and the sometimes-horrible things a people must do to survive. The fact that any of the Pilgrims actually lived through their first few winters on this continent is truly amazing and speaks to their strong stock.

'Mayflower' begins by documenting the decisions faced by these people in England to start their lives over again in a totally different "world". Freedom of religion was their most overriding reason for wanting to begin anew. They needed a place to live and worship free from persecution. The horrific voyage and their landing on the North American shore are all laid out very vividly, and there are side stories and anecdotes about the people and their families, making it possible to have a real connection to the story. In writing about the Native American tribes in the area surrounding Plymouth Colony, it is obvious Nathaniel Philbrick has done his homework. He speaks in excruciating detail about these tribes, their leaders and particularly about their wartime strategies and nomadic ways. In addition, the relationship between the Pilgrims and the natives was so adversarial, it belies the tradition we know of the "Thanksgiving Meal". I also think most people do not realize that the Pilgrims abused their relationship with the natives and took advantage of them. It certainly shocked me, and I found myself thinking they were bloody thugs, not the cute little stovepipe hat/golden buckle wearing saints they are often depicted as. 'Mayflower' is not glamorous or enchanting, nor is it a homey and heartwarming story, it's a gritty, harrowing, bloody, real-world view of a group of people who had a hand in developing a country known as the United States of America.

Nathaniel Philbrick has not disappointed again (this is a third book by him that I read, others are: "Sea of Glory" and "In the Heart of the Sea"). What a great writer, my favorite along with Hampton Sides ("Ghost Soldiers"). True history is always better than the fiction (no matter how good the fiction is), particularly when presented by such writers. I have been always interested in early relations between white migrants/settlers and North America's Natives. "Mayflower" is a story of New England - arrival of first Pilgrims and Puritans, establishment of united colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth in XVII century. As usual.. these relations were very complex and tragic in many instances: nastiness, hatred, treachery, sufferings, slavery dirty business, very little cooperation and understanding, cruelty, war and massacres..nothing that we would not expect from humans. We simply cannot exist in peace, period. Two important people emerge from this historical period: King Phillip (not very ingenious and tragic Native sachem) and controversial in many aspects Benjamin Church - first who embraced the wilderness warfare, prototype of Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and Kid Carson.
"Mayflower", as well as "The Last Stand" by Philbrick + "Blood and Thunder" by Hampton Sides create the very powerful trilogy about the above mentioned subject of relations. These books are quite objective (IMO, though I know that not all will agree) and fantastic reading.