The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Wordy Shipmates
Book Review: Don't bother. More tangents than a Geometry textbook
Summary: 1 Stars
Don't bother with Sarah Vowell's Wordy Shipmates.
I confess that I didn't buy this book because I'm particularly interested in the Puritans of either the Mayflower (Plymouth) or the later Arbella (Boston). I bought it because I love watching Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, and he clearly loves Sarah Vowell and her humor, and he strongly endorsed her writing.
I read it cover to cover over the last week. Ms. Vowell's tangential writing style amuses for the first few pages, and then just drains your ability to focus on her vaguely-conceived and poorly-organized thesis. She finally gets on topic around page 27, with the preceding 26pp discussing Thanksgiving plays by her kids, along with lengthy descriptions of outdated TV show Thanksgiving episodes from Happy Days, Mr Ed, the Brady Bunch, and others.
I was born and raised in New England, and like all of us went on all the school trips to Plymouth Rock, Boston, and Salem. The pilgrims can be a really interesting topic, and certainly there are parallels and differences with modern Christianity and politics. But Ms. Vowell spends much too much time much time discussing at length her interpretation of these connections with the contemporary Evangelicals, Ron Paul, and Ronald Reagan. This book would have been so much better with a little more research on the separatist and nonseparating Puritans and a little less time elucidating obvious parallels. Of all the many players in the book, only Winthrop, Williams, and Hutchinson are given solid psychological portraits.
Overall, I'd decribe this book as trying a little too hard to be funny, trying a little to hard to be hip and relevant, with shoddy research and lack of original thought. Save your $$$.
Book Review: Entertaining History
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
As a descendant of the Puritans I was glad to see Sarah Vowell follow-up her wildly successful Assassination Vacation with a book about these founding fathers. As a fan of Vowell's work on NPR I knew I'd be in for a fun read. But don't go thinking this is just a narrative history book. If kids could learn American history from books like this, they'd be enthralled and never skip class.
Vowel somehow manages to weave present day rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones into 17th Century New England history. She has become an expert at giving a historical account with a bit of a twist in her own unique voice. Through stories about John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and Ann Hutchinson she gives readers a unusual look at life in 1600s America.
Sarah Vowell has become a master at educating readers on American history while entertaining them. Dead presidents, Puritans - I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!
Book Review: Entertaining History
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
First published in 2008, I reread this book for the third time this year-- it has in fact almost become a Thanksgiving ritual.
Possibly frustrating to the traditional history fan, I have found the information she provides about the various flavors of Puritanism and their interaction fascinating. This is information that was definitely left out of public school history books. Interwoven with personal anecdotes and leavened with a good deal of humor, I highly recommend this book.
I also broke down and bought the audible version. Over seven hours of entertainment with multiple narrators including the author herself, that can make a long car trip seem much shorter.
Book Review: Entertaining and Informative
Summary: 4 Stars
Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates takes on the subject of early New England history with an insightful and sometimes amusing bent that makes it an easygoing and fun read. It's an accessible and cool book, a Gen Xer's take on how the puritan culture of seventeenth century Massachusetts and its neighbors still continues to inform our American mindset.
Shipmates takes us through the story of John Winthrop, a puritan minister who traveled to New England in 1630 aboard the ship Arbella with a group of true believers and a dream of creating a "city upon a hill" in the New World, a vision of America that we as a nation still espouse to this day. Along with Winthrop, Vowell includes several other prominent figures from the time: Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his outspoken arguments for the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state, Anne Hutchinson, a puritan woman gifted with a sharp legal mind and an even sharper tongue, as well as the Pequot and Narragansett Indians, natives who were forced to make room for the expanding European settlements.
With wit and an armchair style that makes the subject matter engaging and interesting, Vowell draws relevant parallels between the Massachusetts Bay Colony's seal with its picture of a Native American holding a banner that reads "Come Over and Help Us" and our current national policy of "helping" foreign, sovereign nations with military intervention. The writing is smart, its thesis timely without being preachy. Both entertaining and informative, The Wordy Shipmates is an interesting little primer on the origins of American political philosophy.
Book Review: Exceptionalism
Summary: 3 Stars
If you know a reader who hates reading history because it's boring, read and recommend Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates. Vowell tells the story of John Winthrop and his fellow shipmates from the Arbella, who arrived in America from England to practice their religion. Winthrop's 1630 sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity," provides the context for Vowell's chatty and irreverent exploration of these people who followed the Bible and set a foundation for American life. Winthrop's "city on a hill" has become a part of our identity that defines our country as an exceptional place with a destiny to perform good acts for the world. Vowell explores the way Anne Hutchinson was treated, and how Roger Williams built a community with tolerance at its center. Vowell's contemporary take on this era and her conversational and quirky writing style makes The Wordy Shipmates a reading adventure rather than a plodding narrative.
Rating: Three-star (Recommended)