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Gag Gifts, Occasion Gifts - The Wordy Shipmates
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $15.57
Your Save: $ 10.38 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.0882859
EAN: 9781594489990
ISBN: 1594489998
Label: Riverhead Hardcover
Manufacturer: Riverhead Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: 2008-10-07
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Studio: Riverhead Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not my cup of tea, but I appreciate the effort involved
Comment: I've seen Sarah Vowell on the Daily Show and thought she was pretty funny. I always planned to buy one of her books but never got around to it. This may have been the wrong choice for me because I am not a history buff at all. But I can totally appreciate the effort and knowledge that went into writing this book. I give her four stars for the work alone.
I found the subject matter pretty boring, and I never would have finished this in book form. But since I could listen to this audiobook on my commute to work, it wasn't too taxing.
And I know it's not something she can help, but at times I found her lisp a bit annoying and wished she had hired someone else to read the book.
Overall, I do recommend this to anyone who, unlike me, really likes history.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort to see where the roots of American Puritanism were laid and how far modern religious leaders have drifted
Comment: Sarah Vowell, like many of us, was likely introduced to "the shining city on the hill" by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan used the metaphor to describe the America people longed for, an admirable and special place that other nations could emulate. "In my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace," Reagan said. "A city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still."
Reagan, of course, was borrowing from Puritan leader John Winthrop, who gave his famous "city on a hill" speech to his followers as they came from England to their new home in America in 1630. These Puritans, who would go on to found the city that would become Boston, had an opportunity to build their own society from the ground up.
"...we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us," Winthrop told his fellow immigrants. "So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses."
They looked for guidance, not from their home in England but from more ancient role models. How many people in our supposedly devout nation of Christians recognize the true source of the words as Jesus Christ? In Winthrop's time, the reference would be obvious. Jesus's words come from Matthew and inspired Winthrop and the Puritans deeply.
"You are the light of the world," Jesus told his followers in his famous Sermon on the Mount. "A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
Today, an alleged evangelical like Sarah Palin credits the phrase to Reagan, apparently unaware of its biblical background. It's a contrast Vowell spends plenty of time on. For all of their faults, these Puritans understood and studied the Bible. They were also obsessed with learning, making a point to create Harvard University to educate their young leaders. It's a stark contrast when compared to modern conservative leaders who consider educated men "elitist" and want to place the Ten Commandments in public schools yet cannot name all 10. As Vowell shows, these modern religious leaders have all of the egotism of their forefathers, but it isn't egotism that is tempered by humility, devotion and fear.
Vowell is one of our most interesting writers, always sure to bring a unique perspective and modern twist to her historical wanderings. It speaks volumes that she has successfully made a book inspired by Puritan sermons interesting and vital. It isn't nearly as breezy or as easy a read as her previous, more personal essays in ASSASSINATION VACATION, but it's worth the effort to see where the roots of American Puritanism were laid and how far modern religious leaders have drifted from their influences.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Snowden
Customer Rating:
Summary: good history, funny, modern connections not as strong, tough voice
Comment: If you're reviewing an audiobook, one of the things you have to address is, well, the audio. So I may as well get this out now. I'm not a fan of Sarah Vowell's voice. I know, I know, she's on radio all the time. And she's the voice of Viola in The Incredibles, one of my favorites movies too. But on NPR her voice comes at you in small packets of sound. The same is even more true of her voice work in The Incredibles, where she only gives us a line or two in a row. But to be honest, it's a tough voice to listen to for hours, even broken up as it is by other readers doing some of the sections (reading bits of diary or various proclamations for instance).
If you can get by the voice (and as I said, it's hard to do over an extended time so I suggest listening in short segments), then how is the content? Mixed. The strongest part is Vowell's examination of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, starting with them setting sail and continuing into their settling and maintenance of the Colony for about the first ten years or so. She's clearly done her research (in fact, she tells us of her research several times) and makes good use of primary documents--diaries, logs, speeches, etc. These are the lesser known Pilgrims and certainly worthy of our attention, especially for their enduring influence on America, which is really Vowell's major point. She delves into their reasons for leaving, their internal differences, their relations with the native americans, their "break-ups" with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. Sometimes, as she readily admits, the minor theological points can be a bit tedious, but she is a good enough writer that she knows how far to carry it before spinning off into a relieving change of topic, either still in the historical vein or breaking us utterly free with a reference to the Brady Bunch as the great educational program of a generation.
That humorous mix of the present and the past, where Vowell sticks to a sharp-eyed and equally sharp-toned look at popular culture (use that last word loosely here she seems to say) is the book's second-best attribute. Not all such reference work, but many, and probably most do and they often provoke both laughter and thought.
The least successful aspect of the book is when she tries to tie in modern-day politics/economics. Here, too often, her connections seem a bit of a stretch, her conclusions more pre-ordained than discovered through her research. And I say this as someone who shares her politics. My guess is those who don't will find these moves even more annoying.
Without them, and if the book were read rather than listened to, I'd probably have rated it a strong four. The weakly drawn connections to modern-day knock it down to a strong 3 and the voice down to a solid 3. I'd recommend the Wordy Shipmates, but as a book to hold in your hand and read rather than one to listen to.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great reading for those interested in the early days of the Puritans/Pilgrims
Comment: A revelation and a new approach to the religious conflicts faced by the early settlers of New England. Various interpretations of man's place in relation to God brought about basic differences in the methods of establishing new communities, some resulting in pretty drastic penalties.
The writing is humorous, sometimes tongue in cheek, yet always with a keen perception of the characters and eccentricities of the founding fathers of our country. A little knowledge of the early settlers of New England would make the book and its characters "come alive" more graphically.
Customer Rating:
Summary: "The Brady Bunch" as History.
Comment: Sarah Vowell has done it again. Her easy style and simple analogies keep the reader interested and the pace moving - in spite of what might be considered a droll subject. The references to TV shows such as "Bewitched", "Happy Days", and "The Brady Bunch" make it clear that Vowell is a product of the modern media generation.
"'Bobby, the Indians were friendly at first,' says Mrs. Brady. 'They didn't start fighting until their land was taken away.'
Bobby: 'You mean the Pilgrims took away all the Indians' land?'
'That's right,' answers Mr. Brady, who immediately looks regretful at this pointblank lapse of patriotic-forefather boosterism and adds, 'Uh, well, at first they didn't take much of it.'"
Later she writes, "There isn't much difference between tall tales that start, 'Listen my children and you shall hear' and 'Here's the story of a man named Brady.' In other words, Americans have learned our history from exaggerated popular art for as long as anyone can remember...."
Sarah Vowell is an American treasure.
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