Call number
974.088 V
Collection
Publication
Riverhead Hardcover (2008), Edition: 1St Edition, 272 pages
Description
Essays. History. Nonfiction. Humor (Nonfiction.) HTML:From the author of Lafayette in the Somewhat United States, The Wordy Shipmates is New York Times bestselling author Sarah Vowell's exploration of the Puritans and their journey to America to become the people of John Winthrop's "city upon a hill," a shining example, a "city that cannot be hid." To this day, 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? What Vowell discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoe-buckles-and- corn reputation might suggest. 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 Christlike 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 does it take to get that jezebel Anne Hutchinson to shut up? A hatchet. *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, where ?righteousness? is rhymed with ?wilderness,? to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, 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.… (more)
Subjects
Media reviews
Bitch Magazine
Maybe there's something to be said for learning about the pilgrims, after all—especially from an instructor as entertaining as Vowell.
Reviews in Religion and Theology
As always with Vowell, her commentary is apt and frequently, startlingly
insightful. I would suggest that this book might well be used as
a sort of introductory text to the ideas of the Puritans particularly for
undergraduates. Because she engages so cleverly with popular culture,
it may help
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provide a successful approach to the dense and highly
intellectualized writing of this group of Puritans. For the nonspecialist
in this period, the book could serve as a reminder of what continues to
be so fascinating about the ideas of the New England Puritans of the
seventeenth century and the impact their thought continues to have in
popular discourse. Show Less
Sarah Vowell is a problem. She’s a problem like Sarah Palin, Cyndi Lauper and Kathy Griffin. She’s annoying. Or, really, she’s double-annoying, because she styles herself as annoying — provocative-annoying — and if you become annoyed by her you seem to be conceding the point. She’s
Take “The Wordy Shipmates,” her fifth book. Vowell has integrated her sarcasm, flat indie-girl affect and kitsch worship — refined in print and on public radio — into a pop history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Known for her adenoid-helium voice, Vowell is a genial talker but an undisciplined writer. This new book mixes jiggers of various weak liquors — paraphrase, topical one-liners, blogger tics — and ends up tasting kind of festive but bad, like Long Island iced tea.
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gotten to you.Take “The Wordy Shipmates,” her fifth book. Vowell has integrated her sarcasm, flat indie-girl affect and kitsch worship — refined in print and on public radio — into a pop history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Known for her adenoid-helium voice, Vowell is a genial talker but an undisciplined writer. This new book mixes jiggers of various weak liquors — paraphrase, topical one-liners, blogger tics — and ends up tasting kind of festive but bad, like Long Island iced tea.
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Booklist
Drawing on letters, essays, and sermons, Vowell offers a penetrating look at the tensions between John Winthrop, John Cotton, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and others as they argued about the role of religion in government and everyday life. They saw themselves as God's chosen people, a credo
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that set the tone for American history and notions of manifest destiny that have led to all manner of imposition on other lands and cultures. But they also vehemently debated separation of church and state and founded Harvard, even as they pondered the destiny of what Winthrop referred to as the "shining city on the hill "A book dense with detail, insight, and humor. Show Less
Kirkus Reviews
At times dense, at times silly, at times surpassingly wise.
Publishers Weekly
Gracefully interspersing her history lesson with personal anecdotes, Vowell offers reflections that are both amusing (colonial history lesson via The Brady Bunch) and tender (watching New Yorkers patiently waiting in line to donate blood after 9/11)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ulfhjorr
There is a reason that professional historians, while certainly influenced by their politics, refrain from interjecting those beliefs into their telling of history -- both the history and the politics suffer from the poor mixture. This suffering is only expanded when, as with "The Wrody Shipmates",
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the author refuses to put either in the context of its own time. Show Less
LibraryThing member thornton37814
The Wordy Shipmates is a somewhat irreverant and humorous look at the Puritans. While I respected the author's research, utilizing the works of persons such as Winthrop, Williams, and Cotton, my enjoyment of the book was marred by the writer's obvious politically left and feminist interpretations
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of events when comparing things to more modern politics. The engaging manner in which the book was written could make this era come alive for many students who find history dull and boring. The addition of chapters would have made for easier reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member gkleinman
I really enjoy Sarah Vowell’s work and I’ve often recommended Assassination Vacation , so I had pretty hight expectations for The Wordy Shipmates.
At its core The Wordy Shipmates is a very interesting book. Vowell takes a look at a very specific time and space in American History and shines a
What’s missing from The Wordy Shipmates is Vowell herself. In Assassination Vacation, Vowell’s own journey was the glue which held the book together. Here that kind of journey is mostly absent and so the book often gets stalled in the historical content.
That all said, it is a fascinating book and Vowell is immensely talented. My instinct though is that hearing her read this story would be more enjoyable and entertaining than reading it, and this comes from someone who rarely listens to audio books.
So if you’re a Vowell fan, do check this book out, albeit with lower expectations as it’s no Assassination Vacation.
At its core The Wordy Shipmates is a very interesting book. Vowell takes a look at a very specific time and space in American History and shines a
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light into many preconceived notions of the Puritans and their experience in early America.What’s missing from The Wordy Shipmates is Vowell herself. In Assassination Vacation, Vowell’s own journey was the glue which held the book together. Here that kind of journey is mostly absent and so the book often gets stalled in the historical content.
That all said, it is a fascinating book and Vowell is immensely talented. My instinct though is that hearing her read this story would be more enjoyable and entertaining than reading it, and this comes from someone who rarely listens to audio books.
So if you’re a Vowell fan, do check this book out, albeit with lower expectations as it’s no Assassination Vacation.
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LibraryThing member spinsterrevival
Sarah Vowell gives us a cheat sheet on some American history that I wouldn't be interested in if Vowell wasn't writing about it. Unfortunately, I'm not really interested in it even with Vowell decoding it for me. She explains things well and throws in some zingers, but I just can't geek out at the
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Puritan antics as much as she does. I love Vowell's writing in her other books but could not stay involved in this one, although I'll still keep reading whatever she writes. Oh--and for the love of all that is good in the world--why weren't there separate chapters? Extended essays when you have no hope of knowing when there is a break coming along just kills me. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookgirljen
I had SO looked forward to this book, after thoroughly enjoying "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" and "Assassination Vacation". But this book just wasn't as good as her previous books.
I think what was missing from this book was the author! In her previous books she was more an active participant in
Here, however, the book was the author's retelling of Puritan history, but without enough participatory experiences. It definitely had its moments where the author's voice shined through, but it had way too many excerpts from old Puritan texts, that slowed down the narrative just because they were more difficult to read.
I did learn something, and am glad I read the book. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had the author's previous works. If you've never read Sarah Vowell before, don't start with this one. Pick up "Assassination Vacation" instead. :)
I think what was missing from this book was the author! In her previous books she was more an active participant in
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discovering the history, and she was better able to inject her snarkiness and humor. Her experiences and reactions were what made the books so funny. Here, however, the book was the author's retelling of Puritan history, but without enough participatory experiences. It definitely had its moments where the author's voice shined through, but it had way too many excerpts from old Puritan texts, that slowed down the narrative just because they were more difficult to read.
I did learn something, and am glad I read the book. I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had the author's previous works. If you've never read Sarah Vowell before, don't start with this one. Pick up "Assassination Vacation" instead. :)
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LibraryThing member andystardust
Since professing a love of historical sites, museums, commemorative plaques and the like in her essay about retracing the Trail of Tears, Sarah Vowell has become to American history what John Stewart is to politics. Her writing matches the narration of historical facts with a sharp wit that
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consistently makes her work accessible without sacrificing its thoughtfulness. This book resembles a standard work on American history more than any of her previous work, focusing as it does on a series of primary sources: diaries, journals, and published pamphlets produced by the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There is less here of Vowell's tendency to filter her history lessons through the lens of her personal experience touring museums and interviewing tour guides, and I missed those elements to some extent. But the book is no less a showcase for Vowell's brand of patriotism, which here seeks to dispel misconceptions about the Puritans while celebrating some of their most influential ideas. Show Less
LibraryThing member bnbooklady
Blame it on Nathaniel Hawthorne and that fantastic Jonathan Edwards sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” but I just can’t help loving the Puritans. That’s right. Loving them. I am fascinated by these people who were so convinced they were God’s chosen that they left their
This was my first time reading Sarah Vowell, and it was pretty much love from page one. Focusing on John Cotton, John Winthrop (author of the famous exhortation to be “as a city upon a hill”), and the social, political, and religious motivations of the people who founded America, Vowell brings to light the petty arguments, deeply felt convictions, complex relationships, and community values that, whether we acknowledge it or not, continue to form the basis of our society today. And yes, Vowell has her own political agenda here, occasionally pointing out that the things that make the Puritans sound crazy are not so different from the things that motivate members of other exremist religious groups to attack and criticize America today.
The post-9/11 context gives The Wordy Shipmates added depth, and Vowell presents her research and her just-subtle-enough jabs with a snappy pace and a hefty portion of snark. But the book is really all about the story behind the story, the seldom told history of the people who came after the Mayflower, and the complexities of their inner lives and their relationships with each other. The blurb on the back of The Wordy Shipmates calls Vowell’s Puritans “highly literatate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty,” and that sums it up nicely. The story is so interesting, in fact, that I didn’t even notice it is written as one long piece—no chapter divisions here—with just the occasional paragraph break.
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families and communities for what can only be described as a harrowing journey across the Atlantic to a new world of unknowns. Sure, they also believed this destiny entitled them to kill the natives, take the land, and impose their religious beliefs, but doesn’t that make them interesting?This was my first time reading Sarah Vowell, and it was pretty much love from page one. Focusing on John Cotton, John Winthrop (author of the famous exhortation to be “as a city upon a hill”), and the social, political, and religious motivations of the people who founded America, Vowell brings to light the petty arguments, deeply felt convictions, complex relationships, and community values that, whether we acknowledge it or not, continue to form the basis of our society today. And yes, Vowell has her own political agenda here, occasionally pointing out that the things that make the Puritans sound crazy are not so different from the things that motivate members of other exremist religious groups to attack and criticize America today.
The post-9/11 context gives The Wordy Shipmates added depth, and Vowell presents her research and her just-subtle-enough jabs with a snappy pace and a hefty portion of snark. But the book is really all about the story behind the story, the seldom told history of the people who came after the Mayflower, and the complexities of their inner lives and their relationships with each other. The blurb on the back of The Wordy Shipmates calls Vowell’s Puritans “highly literatate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty,” and that sums it up nicely. The story is so interesting, in fact, that I didn’t even notice it is written as one long piece—no chapter divisions here—with just the occasional paragraph break.
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LibraryThing member the_awesome_opossum
The Wordy Shipmates is an interesting history book, because it doesn't read anything like most history books - in fact, like most nonfiction at all. Sarah Vowell clearly has a passion for history, and reading this was like listening to the cool, fun history professor give a lecture. In our
I did find myself wishing that the book was a little more academic, although I didn't mind the chattiness. But there aren't even footnotes or an index, and the bibliography is sparse and incomplete. It's a unique approach to history, and really a good introduction to the subject, but I was looking for something a little bit weightier.
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elementary education and general cultural knowledge, the Puritans get mischaracterized so badly, and The Wordy Shipmates makes them into relatable and interesting people.I did find myself wishing that the book was a little more academic, although I didn't mind the chattiness. But there aren't even footnotes or an index, and the bibliography is sparse and incomplete. It's a unique approach to history, and really a good introduction to the subject, but I was looking for something a little bit weightier.
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LibraryThing member dmcolon
I saw Sarah Vowell on TV ( The Daily Show? Colbert? One of the two). I picked up the book expecting a humorous romp through Puritan times in Colonial America. That wasn't quite what I got from "The Wordy Shipmates". Instead I've found a somewhat rambling and occasionally pedestrian account of early
What I did gain from the book, however, is that the Puritans are far more complex than we were led to believe as schoolchildren. Puritans were not bible-thumping anti-intellectual prigs. John Winthrop, for instance, could be an incredibly humane and charitable man or a closed-minded bigot. And in a sense, Vowell's book argues that America still reflects those competing values and inclinations. We are the country that brought the world the civil rights movement and Guantanamo Bay detentions. We have alternatively embodied liberty and segregation and slavery. There's a complexity that belies both the "country first" crowd and the revisionist critics of our past.
In the end, this attempt to convey our moral ambiguity is what saves the book. "The Wordy Shipmates" makes up for its shortcomings and made me appreciate our early history much more than I have for years.
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America. What I did gain from the book, however, is that the Puritans are far more complex than we were led to believe as schoolchildren. Puritans were not bible-thumping anti-intellectual prigs. John Winthrop, for instance, could be an incredibly humane and charitable man or a closed-minded bigot. And in a sense, Vowell's book argues that America still reflects those competing values and inclinations. We are the country that brought the world the civil rights movement and Guantanamo Bay detentions. We have alternatively embodied liberty and segregation and slavery. There's a complexity that belies both the "country first" crowd and the revisionist critics of our past.
In the end, this attempt to convey our moral ambiguity is what saves the book. "The Wordy Shipmates" makes up for its shortcomings and made me appreciate our early history much more than I have for years.
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LibraryThing member snash
While I believe that the book is backed by thorough research, it has a flippant and entertaining style which hides much of the information. The reader is not immersed in the time for much of the book due to the frequent jumps in time meant to show influence of that time's thinking upon the present.
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It was these threads through time that felt like clever opinion rather than well researched connections. They were often interesting and thought provoking but irritating in that they interrupted the story of the time. Show Less
LibraryThing member michaelbartley
History is messy, and from a distance I am not sure you can say who the good guys or the bad guys are. this is the story of the puritan settlement in Mass. in some ways the leaders were noble and did expand liberty and in other ways they were small self center self rightous and petty. it was a
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struggle of course to survive. it is a very readable and enjoyable read. Show Less
LibraryThing member GoofyOcean110
Not really sure what to expect from the book, I found that Wordy Shipmates didn't really know what to expect from me either. This is a look at the religiosity of the colony in Boston, its spiritual/community leaders and the colonies it spawned. But this book didn't know whether it was trying to
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really provide a well-researched new angle to a classic story or whether it was trying to provide a series of amusing 'Hey Didja Know That?' factoids for the casual observer to whip out at cocktail parties. At times analytical, at times informal, Vowell's dry humor and sarcasm were present throughout. Yet the combination of writing styles struck me as incongruous and odd, and I kept expecting the other style whenever it switched. It seemed that the book was simultaneously aimed at two separate audiences but fell a bit short for both. Show Less
LibraryThing member flourish_leslie
Sarah Vowell's audio performances never fail to entertain, whether on This American Life or in the audio version of one of her own books, such as Assassination Vacation. I can't say as much for her work in its written form. While Vowell packs her books with interesting information, they tend to
The book has made me more informed about the goings-on of 17th-century America. Vowell acts as a knowledgeable tour guide who has the salacious details. She's been on enough museum tours to know how it should be done. But, on page, at least, this tour seems, well, wordy. I'm not sure what Vowell wants to impart unto her readers. The book could be a primer on Puritan New England, but it doesn't ask to be taken seriously as an academic text. And, while Vowell keeps her tour funny, she spends too much time in facts to classify The Wordy Shipmates as humor. Meanwhile, she indicates several parallels between Puritan New England and modern America, but does not explore them enough to make a cohesive thesis. Altogether, The Wordy Shipmates offers pleasant-enough chitchat about an area of American history that often gets glossed-over, but I wish I'd sprung for the audiobook.
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lack the voice that Vowell might fill in with, well, her actual voice. Snark does abound in The Wordy Shipmates, a book that recounts the first years of the Massachussetts Bay Colony; however, archival records dominate the text. Quotations, often in block form, take up at least half of every page, leaving me feel as if I might as well have gone directly to the primary source and read the papers of Roger Williams and John Winthrop for myself. The book has made me more informed about the goings-on of 17th-century America. Vowell acts as a knowledgeable tour guide who has the salacious details. She's been on enough museum tours to know how it should be done. But, on page, at least, this tour seems, well, wordy. I'm not sure what Vowell wants to impart unto her readers. The book could be a primer on Puritan New England, but it doesn't ask to be taken seriously as an academic text. And, while Vowell keeps her tour funny, she spends too much time in facts to classify The Wordy Shipmates as humor. Meanwhile, she indicates several parallels between Puritan New England and modern America, but does not explore them enough to make a cohesive thesis. Altogether, The Wordy Shipmates offers pleasant-enough chitchat about an area of American history that often gets glossed-over, but I wish I'd sprung for the audiobook.
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LibraryThing member jentifer
Reading Sarah Vowell always makes feel like such an a-hole. I think she's so so funny and I love listening to her on NPR. Unfortunately, I am totally unable to stick it through one of her books. Always, always, always I make it about 1/4 of the way in and can't finish. It's funny, because while I'm
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reading that first fourth I'm totally down -- I read aloud sentences, I look up the people she's writing about, etc. but I always get distracted by her asides and find myself coming up with my own asides and wandering off to read some other piece about the topic she's pondering and never come back.I'm going to try and nab this on CD and listen to it - maybe that will make the difference. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookworm12
The latest from Vowell focuses on the pilgrims. I've really enjoyed some of her other books, but this one felt like it dragged on. Her opinions and sarcasm often overwhelmed the facts and it also felt like she tried to pack too much information into the book. It lacked the balance between fact and
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anecdote that she has managed so well in the past. Show Less
LibraryThing member MusicMom41
When I studied early American history in school in the mid 20th century it was presented basically from the white English male perspective. Sarah Vowell’s presentation of that history of the Puritans settling Massachusetts is from her American Indian female perspective, which bias she happily
This was our car book on our trip last week to Vallejo and Sunday we took a lovely Sunday afternoon drive into the mountains so we could finish the book. It took longer than the 7 hours because frequently we had to stop the disks to discuss what she was saying. This book offered much “food for thought” and would make a great selection for a book group who is able to discuss opposing viewpoints without rancor. This book meets my requirements for a memorable read: it made me think and to examine my own biases. I will be reading more about this period in our history to get a more balanced perspective.
About the recording: What I liked best about this recording were the musical interludes between sections (written especially by the performer for this recording) and the use of other voices to read the direct quotations. The latter not only highlighted the quotations but gave some relief from the narrator. I had two problems with Sarah Vowell as the narrator. She has a harsh, rather strident, voice that jarred me every time we started the disk and took getting used to. A bigger problem was that she obviously had several “axes to grind” in this history and her voice emphasized even more than her actual words the places where she just had no use for certain characters or events. I have the same problem with her that I have with listening to Glen Beck’s books (on the opposite end of the political spectrum, I assume). His strident and demeaning tone of voice often lessens the impact of what he is trying to convey because I get annoyed rather than convinced. I think I would have enjoyed the Vowell’s book more had I read it instead of listening—but then I would have missed the discussions with my husband
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acknowledges. Using many direct quotes from historical documents she weaves the story of the Puritan experiences in America with some glimpses of the history of England at that time, which includes the fall of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and the reinstatement of the monarchy with Charles II. John Winthrop’s diaries were primary sources and quoted frequently; writing of other Puritans were also quoted and the details of those years were thoroughly expounded including the banishments of Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson and the problems with the Indians. She also connects this history to many of the politicians in more modern times, showing how they used this “story” for their agendas. If your memory of this period of American revolves around the Thanksgiving pageant at school I recommend this book to abtain a different perspective. This was our car book on our trip last week to Vallejo and Sunday we took a lovely Sunday afternoon drive into the mountains so we could finish the book. It took longer than the 7 hours because frequently we had to stop the disks to discuss what she was saying. This book offered much “food for thought” and would make a great selection for a book group who is able to discuss opposing viewpoints without rancor. This book meets my requirements for a memorable read: it made me think and to examine my own biases. I will be reading more about this period in our history to get a more balanced perspective.
About the recording: What I liked best about this recording were the musical interludes between sections (written especially by the performer for this recording) and the use of other voices to read the direct quotations. The latter not only highlighted the quotations but gave some relief from the narrator. I had two problems with Sarah Vowell as the narrator. She has a harsh, rather strident, voice that jarred me every time we started the disk and took getting used to. A bigger problem was that she obviously had several “axes to grind” in this history and her voice emphasized even more than her actual words the places where she just had no use for certain characters or events. I have the same problem with her that I have with listening to Glen Beck’s books (on the opposite end of the political spectrum, I assume). His strident and demeaning tone of voice often lessens the impact of what he is trying to convey because I get annoyed rather than convinced. I think I would have enjoyed the Vowell’s book more had I read it instead of listening—but then I would have missed the discussions with my husband
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LibraryThing member Unreachableshelf
Sarah Vowell fills in the gaps in American Puritain history in between the settling of Plymouth in 1620 and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s. She humanizes figures whom most Americans know only as names having something to do with the settling of New England, if they know the names at all,
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depicting clearly both their great purposes (their devotion to one another and sense of responsibility) and their potential for cruelty (the Pequot War, and the banishment of those with whom they disagree on threat of death). Furthermore, she does it with her trademark wit and style. Highly recommended for anybody who can enjoy some light reading on serious subjects. Show Less
LibraryThing member nudewoody
The Wordy Shipmates. Sarah Vowell. New York: Penguin, 2008.
Reviewed by Elwood Miller
Sarah Vowell gives us a history of the Puritans written in a style meant to appeal to mass popular culture while chastising Americans for their distorted notion of their nation as a “Puritan nation,” because,
In The Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell highlights the inconsistency she sees in our seeming obsession with being a “Puritan nation” given the fact that the Puritan movement was a scholarly, academic movement while the current state of our nation’s knowledge of its own history is anything is not. Perry Miller, one of the few sources Vowell actually acknowledges in her book, wrote that “Puritanism was a learned, scholarly movement that required knowledge and a respect for the cultural heritage” (15). Ms. Vowell goes on to contrast that Puritan mindset with the contemporary public’s knowledge of its own history, mostly learned from the mass media of the Boomer Generation, the Brady Bunch, Happy Days, Mr. Ed, or what Ms. Vowell refers to as the “Boy, people used to be so stupid school of history” (20). Ms. Vowell’s point here is that this is not a recent sin, but one which has been with us since at least Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, and “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” both of which are full of historical inaccuracies. So part of Ms. Vowell’s project is correcting the historical mythology through her own mass media version of the story of the Puritans. The question then becomes, how accurate is Ms. Vowell’s interpretation?
Ms. Vowell warns us to be careful of judging the Puritans, to realize they were born before the Age of Reason, and to therefore use a historical lens when pondering their thoughts and actions (22). If only Ms. Vowell would take her own advice. Ms. Vowell ponders how often politicians reference the “City on a Hill” passage from John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” sermon, especially politicians such as Sandra Day O’Connor and John F. Kennedy who, as Ms. Vowell puts it, would cause Winthrop to roll over in his grave if he knew such people (a woman and a Catholic) held power. Ms. Vowell seems to have forgotten what she had reminded us of earlier, that times and attitudes do change. Ms. Vowell also decides from reading Roger William’s and William Wood’s thoughts on native life, that being a native woman in seventeenth century New England must have been harder than being either a white woman or a native man. Her opinion is based on the fact that native women did all of the agricultural labor and apparently were so accustomed to extraordinarily heavy labor that for them, childbirth was not difficult at all. As Carol Berkin explains in her book, First Generations: Women in Colonial America, this is an entirely white Eurocentric view which has been discounted by historians who have learned that they must handle cautiously what was written by Europeans about Native Americans, viewing them as artifacts of European’s adjustments to cultural diversity rather than as true guides to native cultures (57).
The second motif of Sarah Vowell’s book is the concept of our nation as a chosen people, a beacon of righteousness as an example for the world. Ms. Vowell claims the most obvious and most used example is the “City on a Hill” passage from Winthrop’s sermon, which Ms. Vowell tells us was not published until 1838, just in time for John L. Sullivan to declare that the United States had a right to all of Oregon due to America’s “manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us . . .” In fact, as Ms. Vowell points out, Winthrop’s sermon created absolutely no stir in 1630 when he delivered it to the Puritans who were New England bound (35). The problem with Ms. Vowell’s rendering is that John L. Sullivan was not even born until 1858, and then went on to become known as the Boston Strong Boy and the first heavyweight boxing champion of the world. It was John L. O’Sullivan who coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny” in the July/August issue of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review.
That glaring error aside, Ms. Vowell’s point is that we dig no deeper into Winthrop’s sermon than the City on a Hill passage. Winthrop’s call was for a communitarian ethos where everyone works together and gets along, where everyone is responsible for each other and where some must be rich, some poor. Not exactly what our founding fathers had in mind 146 years later when they declared that all men are created equal. It is also an ethos which has a darker side . . . especially the part about being responsible for each other when you consider everyone needed to live up to Puritan moral standards. Nor do we critically analyze our own hubristic project in the world. The Puritans’ arrogant view as being God’s chosen people was tempered by the Puritan self-loathing sense of reckoning and the Calvinistic urge to watch over themselves and each other. As Ms. Vowell puts it, “the United States is still a city on a hill; and it’s still shining--because we never turn off the lights in our torture prisons. That’s how we carry out the sleep deprivation” (72). There are moments like these in Sarah Vowell’s book which are truly brilliant.
Another such seemingly brilliant moment is when Ms. Vowell discusses Anne Hutchinson’s project for moving Protestantism further towards a more personal relationship with God, not only linking the democratization of religion to political democratization but also linking the shedding of the need for authority (the idea one need not listen to a clergy to achieve salvation) to a dangerous disregard for expertise. This anti-intellectual impulse, persistent throughout American history at least since the Jacksonian era, leads us to elect leaders who are “wisecracking good ol’ boy[s] . . . instead of a serious thinker who knows some of the pompous, brainy stuff that might actually get fewer people laid off or killed” (215). I ask myself if these are really Ms. Vowell’s ideas. This passage sounds remarkably similar to one of Richard Hofstadler’s theses in his 1964 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (74).
In the end, Sarah Vowell tells us that it is not too late to begin again by quoting John F. Kennedy’s speech to a Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Kennedy told us he was guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates and “ask[s] for y[our] help and y[our] prayers, as I embark on this new and solemn journey” (248). This, Ms. Vowell reminds us, was a new beginning and Kennedy was not alone. If only she had stated this at the beginning of her book, or at least on page 24, where she tells us the most important reason she is writing what she does is because “the country I live in is haunted by the Puritan’s vision of themselves as God’s chosen people.” Ms. Vowell seems to use her book as a series of long essays in which she develops her arguments and then arrives at her conclusion, a way of writing which tends to leave the reader somewhat baffled. Fortunately, Sarah Vowell is a good enough writer that she is able to string the unwary reader along.
Ms. Vowell admits she is a fan of the Puritans and finds them fascinating. She has some excellent notions regarding our national fixation with the Puritans, our national self-image, and the reality of our current situation. I fear that is not enough to redeem The Wordy Shipmates. A major problem with Ms. Vowell’s book is its multitudinous factual errors and failure to use a historical lens. I am left wondering how many other errors occur in her book that I am not aware of. Additionally, while Ms. Vowell admittedly is tackling a complex subject (a historical overview of the Puritan’s Great Migration based on John Winthrop, John Cotton, Roger Williams, and Anne Hutchinson as well as a critical analysis of our nation’s relationship with the Puritan ethos) she fails to present a strong thesis up front, so she is therefore unable to develop an understandable argument and seems to come to a conclusion by way of writing her book. I would hand this book back to Ms. Vowell, asking her how this is an example of her intellectual vigor, and demand a re-write.
Reviewed by Elwood Miller
Sarah Vowell gives us a history of the Puritans written in a style meant to appeal to mass popular culture while chastising Americans for their distorted notion of their nation as a “Puritan nation,” because,
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unlike today’s Americans, “Puritan lives were overwhelmingly, fanatically literary” (13). Specifically, The Wordy Shipmates covers the period between 1629 and 1640, focusing on John Winthrop, John Cotton, Roger Williams, and Anne Hutchinson as a means to explain the origin of concepts such as American exceptionalism and manifest destiny, freedom of religion, and equality for all along with major themes in political and civic discourse such as the ongoing debate over public and private which have haunted the country since that period. Many readers accustomed to more rigorous histories will find The Wordy Shipmates controversial; ultimately Sarah Vowell produces a good read but she commits a myriad of factual errors and fails to use a historical lens when approaching her subject. This leaves room for doubts concerning the rest of what she says, especially since nothing is cited. I feel she does not accomplish what she sets out to do due to the lack of structural clarity, lack of a strong thesis, or a well constructed argument. Sarah Vowell’s argument lacks the accessibility she brings to her text, which ultimately renders her book confusing. In The Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell highlights the inconsistency she sees in our seeming obsession with being a “Puritan nation” given the fact that the Puritan movement was a scholarly, academic movement while the current state of our nation’s knowledge of its own history is anything is not. Perry Miller, one of the few sources Vowell actually acknowledges in her book, wrote that “Puritanism was a learned, scholarly movement that required knowledge and a respect for the cultural heritage” (15). Ms. Vowell goes on to contrast that Puritan mindset with the contemporary public’s knowledge of its own history, mostly learned from the mass media of the Boomer Generation, the Brady Bunch, Happy Days, Mr. Ed, or what Ms. Vowell refers to as the “Boy, people used to be so stupid school of history” (20). Ms. Vowell’s point here is that this is not a recent sin, but one which has been with us since at least Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, and “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” both of which are full of historical inaccuracies. So part of Ms. Vowell’s project is correcting the historical mythology through her own mass media version of the story of the Puritans. The question then becomes, how accurate is Ms. Vowell’s interpretation?
Ms. Vowell warns us to be careful of judging the Puritans, to realize they were born before the Age of Reason, and to therefore use a historical lens when pondering their thoughts and actions (22). If only Ms. Vowell would take her own advice. Ms. Vowell ponders how often politicians reference the “City on a Hill” passage from John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” sermon, especially politicians such as Sandra Day O’Connor and John F. Kennedy who, as Ms. Vowell puts it, would cause Winthrop to roll over in his grave if he knew such people (a woman and a Catholic) held power. Ms. Vowell seems to have forgotten what she had reminded us of earlier, that times and attitudes do change. Ms. Vowell also decides from reading Roger William’s and William Wood’s thoughts on native life, that being a native woman in seventeenth century New England must have been harder than being either a white woman or a native man. Her opinion is based on the fact that native women did all of the agricultural labor and apparently were so accustomed to extraordinarily heavy labor that for them, childbirth was not difficult at all. As Carol Berkin explains in her book, First Generations: Women in Colonial America, this is an entirely white Eurocentric view which has been discounted by historians who have learned that they must handle cautiously what was written by Europeans about Native Americans, viewing them as artifacts of European’s adjustments to cultural diversity rather than as true guides to native cultures (57).
The second motif of Sarah Vowell’s book is the concept of our nation as a chosen people, a beacon of righteousness as an example for the world. Ms. Vowell claims the most obvious and most used example is the “City on a Hill” passage from Winthrop’s sermon, which Ms. Vowell tells us was not published until 1838, just in time for John L. Sullivan to declare that the United States had a right to all of Oregon due to America’s “manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us . . .” In fact, as Ms. Vowell points out, Winthrop’s sermon created absolutely no stir in 1630 when he delivered it to the Puritans who were New England bound (35). The problem with Ms. Vowell’s rendering is that John L. Sullivan was not even born until 1858, and then went on to become known as the Boston Strong Boy and the first heavyweight boxing champion of the world. It was John L. O’Sullivan who coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny” in the July/August issue of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review.
That glaring error aside, Ms. Vowell’s point is that we dig no deeper into Winthrop’s sermon than the City on a Hill passage. Winthrop’s call was for a communitarian ethos where everyone works together and gets along, where everyone is responsible for each other and where some must be rich, some poor. Not exactly what our founding fathers had in mind 146 years later when they declared that all men are created equal. It is also an ethos which has a darker side . . . especially the part about being responsible for each other when you consider everyone needed to live up to Puritan moral standards. Nor do we critically analyze our own hubristic project in the world. The Puritans’ arrogant view as being God’s chosen people was tempered by the Puritan self-loathing sense of reckoning and the Calvinistic urge to watch over themselves and each other. As Ms. Vowell puts it, “the United States is still a city on a hill; and it’s still shining--because we never turn off the lights in our torture prisons. That’s how we carry out the sleep deprivation” (72). There are moments like these in Sarah Vowell’s book which are truly brilliant.
Another such seemingly brilliant moment is when Ms. Vowell discusses Anne Hutchinson’s project for moving Protestantism further towards a more personal relationship with God, not only linking the democratization of religion to political democratization but also linking the shedding of the need for authority (the idea one need not listen to a clergy to achieve salvation) to a dangerous disregard for expertise. This anti-intellectual impulse, persistent throughout American history at least since the Jacksonian era, leads us to elect leaders who are “wisecracking good ol’ boy[s] . . . instead of a serious thinker who knows some of the pompous, brainy stuff that might actually get fewer people laid off or killed” (215). I ask myself if these are really Ms. Vowell’s ideas. This passage sounds remarkably similar to one of Richard Hofstadler’s theses in his 1964 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (74).
In the end, Sarah Vowell tells us that it is not too late to begin again by quoting John F. Kennedy’s speech to a Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Kennedy told us he was guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates and “ask[s] for y[our] help and y[our] prayers, as I embark on this new and solemn journey” (248). This, Ms. Vowell reminds us, was a new beginning and Kennedy was not alone. If only she had stated this at the beginning of her book, or at least on page 24, where she tells us the most important reason she is writing what she does is because “the country I live in is haunted by the Puritan’s vision of themselves as God’s chosen people.” Ms. Vowell seems to use her book as a series of long essays in which she develops her arguments and then arrives at her conclusion, a way of writing which tends to leave the reader somewhat baffled. Fortunately, Sarah Vowell is a good enough writer that she is able to string the unwary reader along.
Ms. Vowell admits she is a fan of the Puritans and finds them fascinating. She has some excellent notions regarding our national fixation with the Puritans, our national self-image, and the reality of our current situation. I fear that is not enough to redeem The Wordy Shipmates. A major problem with Ms. Vowell’s book is its multitudinous factual errors and failure to use a historical lens. I am left wondering how many other errors occur in her book that I am not aware of. Additionally, while Ms. Vowell admittedly is tackling a complex subject (a historical overview of the Puritan’s Great Migration based on John Winthrop, John Cotton, Roger Williams, and Anne Hutchinson as well as a critical analysis of our nation’s relationship with the Puritan ethos) she fails to present a strong thesis up front, so she is therefore unable to develop an understandable argument and seems to come to a conclusion by way of writing her book. I would hand this book back to Ms. Vowell, asking her how this is an example of her intellectual vigor, and demand a re-write.
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LibraryThing member ChicGeekGirl21
While Wordy Shipmates was certainly interesting, I was not as impressed with it as I thought I would be going into it. Vowell writes the book as if it were one long essay--no chapter breaks, no index, no bibliography. Her casual, rambling style made the book difficult to put down: not because it
The Wordy Shipmates is about a particular topic close to my heart: the Puritans of Massachusetts. Vowell focuses on four famous Puritans in particular: John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson...and one other I can't recall at the moment. Perhaps John Cotten. The most interesting sections of the book, to me, were the first third and the last fourth, where Vowell focuses on Winthrop and Hutchinson, respectively. While some of the anecdotes were interesting and some points Vowell makes are thought-provoking (such as the fact that the well-read, education-happy Puritans are a far cry from the emotional Christian fundamentalists of today who tend to mistrust public schools and higher education) the book did not excite me overall. It was a quick read and worth my time for what I got out of it, but I just expected something more. Perhaps I'll pick up Vowell's Assassination Vacation and give her a second chance.
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was so enthralling, but because there were no good stopping points and I was afraid I'd completely lose my place and have to go back and re-read portions of the book to figure out what was going on if I put it down.The Wordy Shipmates is about a particular topic close to my heart: the Puritans of Massachusetts. Vowell focuses on four famous Puritans in particular: John Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson...and one other I can't recall at the moment. Perhaps John Cotten. The most interesting sections of the book, to me, were the first third and the last fourth, where Vowell focuses on Winthrop and Hutchinson, respectively. While some of the anecdotes were interesting and some points Vowell makes are thought-provoking (such as the fact that the well-read, education-happy Puritans are a far cry from the emotional Christian fundamentalists of today who tend to mistrust public schools and higher education) the book did not excite me overall. It was a quick read and worth my time for what I got out of it, but I just expected something more. Perhaps I'll pick up Vowell's Assassination Vacation and give her a second chance.
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LibraryThing member justabookreader
The Wordy Shipmates is an entertaining book that will have readers fascinated by the history of America's founding and the sheer silliness of history sometimes.
Vowell begins with the sailing of the ship Arabella and a blessing by Reverend John Cotton, which being a rather long and dreary speech
Her wit punctuates the story in all the right places reminding the reader of the silly and trifling events that have taken place which have made America what it is today. She takes readers on both a mental and physical journey as she road trips to places such as Boston and Connecticut to view for herself what has become of these locations she has only known from books and letters.
She talks about her fascination with these Puritans and their religion. Under her watchful and admiring eye, she once again brings these men to life, even if in some instances only to air their dirty laundry. While she does point out much of the inane arguments that took place at the time, you see the admiration that she holds for these individuals and what they are undertaking.
One caution about the book - if you are looking for a purely historical read, you will not find it here. A short book, only 254 pages, it reads more like a dissertation rather than an in-depth historical look at the time period. Her topic is well focused and she does not divert from what she has set out to research --- the letters of the men inhabiting the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
She is insightful, witty, and very respectful toward her subjects. She leaves readers with much to think about and a laugh or two along the way.
Vowell begins with the sailing of the ship Arabella and a blessing by Reverend John Cotton, which being a rather long and dreary speech
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common for its time, leaves the reader and these particular sailors and passengers, with much to think about in terms of the task they are embarking upon. While she does not provide much in terms of the history of the very early Puritans, as her work focuses on the words of the men at the time, one is left with an odd but very insightful interpretation of the types of people who were setting out to found a new land.Her wit punctuates the story in all the right places reminding the reader of the silly and trifling events that have taken place which have made America what it is today. She takes readers on both a mental and physical journey as she road trips to places such as Boston and Connecticut to view for herself what has become of these locations she has only known from books and letters.
She talks about her fascination with these Puritans and their religion. Under her watchful and admiring eye, she once again brings these men to life, even if in some instances only to air their dirty laundry. While she does point out much of the inane arguments that took place at the time, you see the admiration that she holds for these individuals and what they are undertaking.
One caution about the book - if you are looking for a purely historical read, you will not find it here. A short book, only 254 pages, it reads more like a dissertation rather than an in-depth historical look at the time period. Her topic is well focused and she does not divert from what she has set out to research --- the letters of the men inhabiting the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
She is insightful, witty, and very respectful toward her subjects. She leaves readers with much to think about and a laugh or two along the way.
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LibraryThing member readingrat
After reading Partly Cloudy Patriot, I was really looking forward to reading another of Sarah Vowell's works. I enjoy her humor and the way she draws astute parallels between her topic of research and current (and sometimes not so current) events. While I did still enjoy reading this account of
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Puritan New England,I didn't really hear this author's unique literary voice in this work as much as I would have liked. Which, for me, made it not quite as good as The Partly Cloudy Patriot. Show Less
LibraryThing member lpmejia
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
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.
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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.
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LibraryThing member lisalangford
Sarah Vowell'sr 'Take the Cannoli' is my favorite of hers. Her mix of pop culture and religion and history is great. She HAS to be one of the only people to wade through the primary sources of John Winthrop and friends. I'm not sure I'll remember all the specifics, AND I am grateful that she did. I
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love her comments and observations on our forebears, a modern, intelligent and clever commentary on religion and religious freedom (as it were) in the 1600's. Show Less
LibraryThing member Lisatron
I first heard of this book from Sarah Vowell's guest appearance on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, during which she spoke with humor and intelligence, and the same can be said about her in this book. She paints an interesting picture of the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, specifically the leaders
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John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and others. A portion of her book focuses on Winthrop's sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity," in which he describes Massachusetts "as a city upon a hill," a phrase often linked to Ronald Reagan. Vowell frequently makes comparisons of Puritan America to modern America, offering new perspectives on understanding our country today. Another figure given attention in the book is Roger Williams, whose views are shown to be astonishingly progressive but also unsurprisingly contradictory to those held by Boston leaders of the time. Vowell describes Williams and other perhaps unfamiliar puritan personalities in a way that defies the thoughts of boredom that probably result when a person considers reading a book about puritans. The Wordy Shipmates is a recommended armchair history read that weaves historical accounts with humorous asides and personal anecdotes. Show Less
LibraryThing member TadAD
Another good book from one of my favorite writers. It's a history book, somewhat more in the vein of Assassination Vacation rather than Take the Cannoli. The topic (Puritans) is a bit drier than her other works but the wonderful Vowell humor and writing ability is all there. If learning about
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Winthrop, Williams and Hutchinson isn't your thing, it might not be for you; if you are interested, this is a good way to learn a bit about them. Show Less
Awards
Indies Choice Book Award (Winner — 2009)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (History — 2008)
Pages
272
ISBN
1594489998 / 9781594489990