Mayflower

A Story of Courage, Community, and War

By: Nathaniel Philbrick

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound.

The Mayflower's religious refugees arrived in Plymouth Harbor during a period of crisis for Native Americans as disease spread by European fishermen devastated their populations. Initially the two groups, the Wampanoags, under the charismatic and calculating chief Massasoit, and the Pilgrims, whose pugnacious military officer Miles Standish was barely five feet tall, maintained a fragile working relationship. But within decades, New England would erupt into King Philip's War, a savagely bloody conflict that nearly wiped out English colonists and natives alike and forever altered the face of the fledgling colonies and the country that would grow from them.

With towering figures like William Bradford and the distinctly American hero Benjamin Church at the center of his narrative, Philbrick has fashioned a fresh and compelling portrait of the dawn of American history, a history dominated right from the start by issues of race, violence, and religion.

©2006 Nathaniel Philbrick (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Recorded Books, LLC. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"Impeccably researched and expertly rendered, Philbrick's account brings the Plymouth Colony and its leaders...vividly to life. More importantly, he brings into focus a gruesome period in early American history." (Publishers Weekly)

"Startling [and] fascinating." (The New York Times)

Perfect!

This is simply the best account of Pilgrim and Indian history I have ever heard.

WHAT THE TEACHER DIDN'T TELL YOU

The Pilgrim story not glorified, not glamorized. Insight into the Indian - Settler relationship. Cohesive, Historical, storytelling. It was real, well done and flowed well until the King Philips War segments of which were disjointed just as the war was. It was scattered as the war was. A horrendous part of our early history not usually presented in our educatioal systems. Everyone should know the senerio portrayed. I learned and I liked it. Recommended

History we never hear about

This was rough to listen to because it is a part of our history that we never hear about in school. I found myself saying "what if" many times.

Masterpiece

This work is what you would expect from Philbrick; detailed and easy to read with a stunning amount of information for a relatively short volume. The narrator is first rate. Two thumbs up.

Interesting book

Good history, interesting, but it was too long. All the events ran together after a while. Worthwhile, however, especially for history buffs.

Excellent

I have listened to this book several times from start to finish and numerous parts of it even more. The author does a wonderful job brining the 17th century characters and events to life. Much of the story was already known to me but the details and the narration really provide great entertainment! It is so important for Americans of the 21st century to understand who our ancestors were of the 17th century, and to learn and appreciate what motivated many of them. So many Americans today have terrible misconceptions about our 17th century colonists to the new world..this book will help to better complete a very poorly taught part of our American past to Americans of today.

A solid overview of early New England history

What made the experience of listening to Mayflower the most enjoyable?

I appreciated that the author avoided either being too cynical or too naive about a story which, as he noted, has formed the center of our national myth since the Civil War. He tried hard to be objective and view the Pilgrims as human, neither the shining paragons of virtue the Victorians depicted them as, nor as evil genocidal maniacs (which you could certainly feel they were at some points in the story). Instead, he just treats them as ordinary humans in a hard situation, products of their time who did some great things, some terrible things, and made the most of a bad situation while sometimes making the situation worse with their own inexperience. King Philip's War was a fascinating story and I was glad it was included. My main problem with the book is that it occasionally got too disjointed. A lot of the Philip's War discussion was just a recitation of the timeline of events of the war, so I sort of phased out during a lot of that. Sometimes the details included were a bit random (like Massasoit's gastrointestinal issues during his bout with Typhoid...), and then details which I wanted to know were left out, or questions I began to wonder about. So while it's a good overview, you don't walk away feeling like you've gotten a comprehensive story in the way that I have felt in some other Audible history books.

Any additional comments?

My main problem with the book is that it occasionally got too disjointed. A lot of the Philip's War discussion was just a recitation of the timeline of events of the war, so I sort of phased out during a lot of that. Sometimes the details included were a bit random (like Massasoit's gastrointestinal issues during his bout with Typhoid...), and then details which I wanted to know were left out, or questions I began to wonder about. So while it's a good overview, you don't walk away feeling like you've gotten a comprehensive story in the way that I have felt in some other Audible history books.

Excellent account of the Mayflower

Starting in Scrooby in the early 1600s and ending with King Philip's war, this a must read for all US history buffs.

Essential reading in my opinion

Now that I'm living in America I wanted to appreciate this country by looking at its origin and this looked like a worthy book. Even though there is a lot of detail I was kept interested by the writing style and the voice presentation which was consistently good throughout. I could really get a feel for what it must've been like for the people of that time and came to appreciate more deeply their quite special and outstanding qualities. As a result I've come to appreciate this country more and i feel that many Americans would surely benefit from being acquainted with their history. Even though it is a long read it is definitely worth the while.

Good History

It was very interesting. Having been told all my life we were descendants of people who sailed here in the Mayflower, we're not certain now. Though very probably related somewhere. It was interesting to hear the history of their lives (both Native Americans & Pilgrims).