Tom Swift Writer’s Notebook

I appreciate authors who write history I should know with clarity and depth that makes me want to know. Nathan Philbrick turns the trick in “Mayflower” — a book that tells the important story of early European arrivals in this country and the complex, seamy nature of that story.

Philbrick dispels long-running fairytales about the Mayflower voyage and the settlement of Plymouth Colony and examines a harsh paradox; many who came seeking religious freedom were unwilling to tolerate other people’s beliefs. Their bigotry eventually erupted into the so-called King Philip’s War, an outrageous blood bath that should be remembered for its decimation of more than one tribe of Native peoples.

I had to slog through a few sections, including war play-by-play that was surprisingly detailed, and I didn’t always keep up with an assortment of characters during the multi-generational narrative (though that may have been evidence of my shortcomings more than the book’s), but the reward was an eye-opening lesson capped by a terrific, sweeping and salient epilogue.

If you haven’t read “Mayflower” already — I just got around to it, but the book’s been in paper since last year — there are worse ways to spend the hours.

This post was added on Friday, January 25, 2008 by Tom Swift at 12:41 and is filed under Reading Material.