I am NOT a history buff, but one page in I was hooked. Philbrick not only tells what the Pilgrims did (how they got there, how they survived) but what gave them the perspective to make the decisions they did. Reading this the Pilgrims, Natives and Londoners gained depth and personalities far over what I remember from history class.
I picked this up mainly as a reference book but enjoyed it as a story. Philbricks sense of irony is wonderful. The first two sections moved faster for me than the settlement and wars, but it was all well researched and written and easy to read.

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For History buffs, this is a GREAT book. Very easy to read, and so much more than just the story of the Mayflower - it is a story about the start of our country. A wonderfully written book

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Fascinating. Everything I thought I knew about the Pilgrims was totally wrong. A book that busts the whole "Thanksgiving, Plmouth Rock" mythology out of the water. A must read for anyone really serious about learning the true history of our founding fathers.

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First off let me say this was a VERY GOOD book. This author is a favorite of mine. Very readable and clearly well researched.

HOWEVER: This book stands everything we commonly learned in third grade and now presume about the Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and the historically familiar cast of characters upside down.

So much for the lovable image of happy Pilgrims living alongside the natives of Cape Cod!

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Quite different from what we were taught when I went to grade school in Massachusetts. One has to wonder about textbook authors.

I believe this is well researched and probably as accurate as it is possible to be. It's well written and explains a lot that our school history texts did not explain or glossed over. There may be other contemporary accounts that are good also but I feel privileged to have read this one and am happy that I did.

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Wow - what an enlightening book. Though I knew the sanitized version of the voyage of the Mayflower, the pilgrims and puritans in New England and the alleged landing at Plymouth Rock was no doubt extremely whitewashed, I had no idea to what extent.
Though I occasionally bogged down in the details, I was more often fascinated by all that I learned. It was very well written and at least gets a partial view of the native american versions of what really occured. Now I am order "In the Heart of the Sea" by the same author, and have very high expectations of loving it too!

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Philbrick is never boring.

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Excellent, detailed but not overwhelming history of the arrival of the Mayflower and subsequent wars of settlement. Immensely readable, journalistic style.

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This is a fascinating account of the early settlement of the Pilgrims and Puritans in the northeast U.S. Yet it also covers their history and interaction with the local American Indian tribes. In fact, the latter takes up much of the second half of the book. And he covers the Indian wars, especially King Philips' War, in detail.

And the author lets us know that, aside from a few in the early days, most Pilgrims and Puritans didn't think their belief in Christian values extended to the native peoples. Actually, that last sentence might be considered an understatement. The early settlers made a lot of money buying Indian lands cheaply and selling many Indians, including friendly tribes, as slaves to plantation owners in the Caribbean. That is, except for those Indian men women and children they killed by the hundreds. But then, that is what the other Indian tribes did to nearby tribes too.

One interesting piece of trivia the author passes on is that in 1741, over a hundred years after the Pilgrims landed, a 95-year-old man pointed out "an undistinguished rock" and stated his father told him that was where the Pilgrims first stepped foot on American soil. And thus a legend was born. The rock was later buried to help form a pier. Later it was dug up to be moved to the center of Plymouth. But it broke in two, and since this was after the American Revolution, the "Loyalist' portion of the rock was left buried, while the rest was moved. Souvenir hunters significantly reduced the size of the rock by chipping off pieces. Later it was moved to Pilgrim Hall, but while being it moved it broke in half and was cemented back together. Thus are our myths created.

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I actually despised this book. I didn't like how he dropped in out-of-timeline pieces that were distracting to the story's progression. I thought the book was overburdened with details that smothered any chance of creating readable impressions of the people involved. I will never pick up another book by this author. If you are a history buff with a lot of familiarity with the time period/events he covers, you might enjoy this. For anyone else: walk away. Quickly.

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Lots of great history. Very interesting at the beginning and end. Bogs down in the middle with overwhelming detail.

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