New York Times bestselling author Sarah Vowell explores the Puritans and their journey to America in The Wordy Shipmates. Even today, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Vowell investigates what that means -- and what it should mean. What was this great political enterprise all about? Who were these people who are considered the philosophical, spiritual, and moral ancestors of our nation? The people she finds are highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty. Their story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Along the way she asks:

• Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, a Christ-like Christian, or conformity's tyrannical enforcer? Answer: Yes!
• Was Rhode Island's architect, Roger Williams, America's founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference.
• What was the Puritans' pet name for the Pope? The Great Whore of Babylon.

Sarah Vowell's special brand of armchair history makes the bizarre and esoteric fascinatingly relevant and fun. She takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America's most celebrated voices. Thou shalt enjoy it.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not as engaging as previous works...
Comment: I think that Sarah Vowell's writing is creative, witting and fascinating. Up until now, I have enjoyed everything written by Sarah Vowell and always look forward to her new books. But I wasn't quite as enthralled with The Wordy Shipmates. Maybe it's me, but I just couldn't get myself as stirred up about the Puritans as Vowell.

Vowell claims that "Americans have learned our history from exaggerated popular art for as long as anyone can remember." She attempts to set the record straight "about those Puritans who fall between the cracks of 1620 Plymouth and 1692 Salem, the ones who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then Rhode Island." She places a special emphasis on the "words written or spoken" by Puritan leaders including John Winthrop, John Cotton, Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. John Winthrop's sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity" plays a major role and appears again and again. According to Vowell, this sermon is "one of the formative documents outlining the idea of America" because of the "'city upon a hill' sound bite."

Vowell is clearly smitten with the Pilgrims, their words, their ideas and their history. Unfortunately, I did not find them that engaging. She usually makes comic parallels between the history she is discussing and the present day. She still does this in spots--sometimes it's more irony than belly laughs. While visiting the Mohegan Sun Casino operated by the Mohegan tribe, Vowell muses that 17th Century sachem "Uncas would undoubtedly get a kick out of his tribe presiding over such an impressive edifice built for the sole purpose of taking white people's wampum." Or that "an America fervently devoted to the quaint goals of working together and getting along" does actually exist. "It's called Canada."

One other thing I disliked was that Vowell does not divide The Wordy Shipmates into chapters. By the end, I was glad that I stuck with this book and I still think that Vowell is an amazing talent. But I was expecting a little more.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good!
Comment: So I picked this up because I love Sarah Vowell, but I completely forgot to see what the book was about. That's sad. I popped in the first CD and felt myself dumped back in my junior year of high school, where my U.S. History class took up the chant of the previous AP U.S. History class... damn the Puritans! We hated learning about Puritans and we made sure that our teacher hated teaching us about the Puritans (poor Mr. Zeiner!). I had fairly low expectations for this book once I realized I would be listening to six CDs of history on the Massachusetts Bay colony. But Sarah Vowell has yet to disappoint. She is passionate about these Puritans, about the citizens and speeches, the diaries, the way of life, all of it. And it rubs off on the reader. I actually found myself wanting to discuss with friends about the way that we misuse the word "puritan." Seriously. Or ithe state in the U.S. that has had the least amount of war in it.

I will say that I really enjoy the way that Vowell goes off on tangents in her other books, and it just doesn't happen as much in this one. She spends a lot of time focused on the Massachusetts Bay colony and less bringing us to the present, making connections that make these people a bit more tangible. I would've liked to see more moments like her family vacation to Puritan tourist traps. Overall, though, this is a great book. If you like her voice (like I do), I'd recommend the audio version. You learn so much and it makes you feel a little more sorry for your history teachers.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Multi-tasking Read!
Comment: I really enjoyed this witty historical perspective. Although unfamiliar with her, I saw an interview promoting this book and put it on my list. I couldn't put it down. I love her cleverness, which made for a humorous read. However, what makes this book great is how it educates the reader on various historical events which are strung together and compared to elicit pause and provoke thought. You learn a bit of history, laugh a lot, and are challenged in your own beliefs. In other words you get a lot of bang for your buck.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Tedious
Comment: If you are interested in reading or listening to yet another work dealing with the plight of the sweet, gentle, kind, generous Native Americans of yore at the hands of heartless, cruel, blood thirsty Europeans and later Americans you've found your book! Sarah is usually irreverently funny. In this work she is more sarcastically flip with very little humor. I enjoy the author's presentations on This American Life but found, listening to this book on my Ipod, that her usually funny deadpan voice can become very tedious after not too long. That, along with her light but bitter writing, was too much. I did not finish the book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Insightful and Sometimes Humorous Book about Puritans
Comment: First of all, I have not read any Sarah Vowell before, although I would definitely like to read more after reading this book. I am familiar with her from NPR and other programs, so I had an idea what to expect. Overall, Vowell does not disappoint, and I learned a lot about some of the lesser-known Puritans of our country's past.

This non-fiction book focuses on the Puritans who left England under the leadership of John Winthrop to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony and what would become Boston. (These aren't your Thanksgiving/Plymouth Puritans.) Vowell's main "character" is John Winthrop, and most of what she discusses has a connection with him. She covers a lot of territory, from the departure from England to the first tough year to the colony's struggle with people on the fringe (such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams, Puritans with views too extreme to stay in the colony) to complicated relations with Native Americans (including a very disturbing massacre).

The book is chock full of information, but is not too wordy (ironically enough). Vowell exercises her sense of humor and sarcasm expertly, and it really kept the narrative interesting and engaging. I could hear her voice in my head as I read it. As other readers pointed out, Vowell does connect events and ideas in the book with modern times, but I did not find this approach overly anti-religious or anti-conservative. It is clear what side of the line Vowell falls on, but I don't think it tainted the book in any way, and I really found the connections and implications of our history very interesting. My one point of criticism, and this may have been corrected once the book was edited for final printing, was that there were no chapters or sections. The narrative was kind of chunked together, and although it flowed well, I think I would have liked to see things separated by chapters or sections, just to be able to organize what I was reading better in my mind. That's really a pretty minor criticism.

I was very impressed with this book and enjoyed it a lot. I have a feeling that some of Vowell's other books may be even better, and I can't wait to check them out.

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