The Wordy Shipmates Paperback – October 6, 2009

Many readers will come to "The Wordy Shipmates" via the same route and reason I did: I enjoyed "Assassination Vacation." I expected the pilgrims would get the same work out as history of America's first three presidential assassinations--travelogue, history, connecting the dots along history's timeline to reveal America's growth as a nation and culture, and a dose of Vowell herself, a passionate, opinionated history geek with a penchant for irony. In "Shipmates," there is far less present day geographical travel and less of her quirky self in the narrative. What she mostly does is travel through the words of New England's founding Puritans to sort out the ideas that shaped things to come, how they did and did not play out, and to see how they reverberate today.Vowell is right: when pilgrims come to mind, it's a big harvest feast with happy Indians. People tend to think they arrived all at the same time, and that the witch trials of Salem were on the heels of the disembarkation at Plymouth. In fact, the immigration began flowing with the Mayflower in 1620 and covered much of the 17th century which closed with the Salem trials. The Puritans were not all of one mind and belief, either. In fact, they struggled among themselves regarding the tenets of their faith, their relationship with Mother England, what New England should be and not be, and how to treat one another and the Indians. Vowell mostly focuses on the events of the 1630s, when Roger Williams was banished to the wilderness where he carved out Rhode Island, when the domineering Anne Hutchinson rattled male leaders, and when things went from "the Indians want us to help them and we'll do our best" to the Pequot War that batted clean-up on the devastation that European microbes had already wreaked, thus making way for the state of Connecticut.I give Vowell a 5 for doing her homework, for casting out misconceptions and finding out just who the founders were, what they believed and what were their actual legacies. She is amazingly lucid given that her travels are largely intellectual among a pithy bunch. I give her a 4 for the fact that it is rendered in one long episodic essay--no chapters, no index. This does not have the bouncing-off-the-walls headiness of "Vacation," but she gets at our Americaness in a meditative but urgent way that is effective, so I'll stick with the full 5 points.

I discovered this book while living in Massachusetts. Vowell's humorous story telling style made it infinitely readable and enjoyable. But she also included all of her sources at the end so that I can research further if I so desire.

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.

I was hoping to like Sarah Vowell's writing after seeing her more than once interviewed on The Daily Show and hearing her read passages from her books. Her sizeable intellect, charming humor, and quick wit are the reasons I wanted to read The Wordy Shipmates; the lovely, unique mannerism of her voice is the reason I bought her audio book when I needed one for a bus trip -- and this set of 6 CD's (7 hours of Sarah occasionally interrupted by guest-read quotations) did not disappoint on any account.The book is mostly devoted to the founding of the Massachusetts Bay colony but also takes us through the beginning of Rhode Island and Connecticut. As deeply informed as it is possible to be about the spirituality, mentality, motivations, and the everyday happenings in the lives of the colonists -- not to mention the historical context surrounding them -- Sarah Vowell did not write an ode of praise to the Puritans nor a judgment of them from the hindsight of modernity. Her analysis of New England's roots, prides, and failures and what they mean for us today is nuanced, sensitive, and sophisticated, and her way of telling the story is so full of humanity that I found myself going from loving John Winthrop with a fervent love to hating him bitterly and back again.With the exception of, perhaps, a bit of choppiness in changing voices for very short quotes, I have no reservations in recommending this book to anyone with interest in American history, in religion, in politics or politica science, or in the general questions of human nature and social coexistence. If you get this, however, be prepared to be challenged, to be provoked, to be questioned -- and to question in return. If you do not, you will have missed the point.

Excellent service. Item arrived as described, and I am happy.

I love Sarah Vowell, but there were a few times when all the names and facts bog down a bit. But still taught me new things and made me laugh!

Sarah Vowell is funny, smart and a great researcher. She makes the discussion of American English fun and fascinating. Her history of American English in the early days of the northeastern colonies is sharp and her characters are wonderfully flawed and of course enormously literate. I Highly recommend it.