A Great and Godly Adventure: The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving

Godfrey Hodgson has written a compelling version of America's national origins which challenges many of our treasured elementary school teachings (and, for that matter, our national art). Many of the myths of the first Thanksgiving were invented by early pioneers as mid-1600's marketing literature, to convince others to join them in the hard New England environment and sustain the settlements. Early Pilgrims didn't want to start a new country in America, they wanted to remain English. They settled at Plymouth, but they didn't land at the famous Plymouth rock. To give thanks, their tradition was to fast, not feast. Hodgson's book tells the tale of the first feast (at which there were no turkeys, cranberries, or pies), the tough first years in the settlement, the complex relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans, and, finally, the evolution of the Thanksgiving holiday over the centuries. The text is at times gripping and at other times plodding. Hodgson certainly has solid research and factual background, but not all chapters will pull the reader in.