The Wordy Shipmates

I'm writing about the audio version of the book, and so will gloss over some of the virtues of the book itself. One of the great treats in Vowell's work is that it's so conversational-- erudite and yet intimate at the same time. It's no surprise that Vowell completely captures that in her reading of her own work. Audiobooks often play like radio theater, or a Reading Fraught With Import. Pop this one in the car cd player, and it's like taking a trip with a smart, funny traveling companion. There is so much nuance in the human voice, and nobody but the author is ever going to get it right. Vowell's own POV contains little quirks and dry twists of humor that few could deliver well. The guest voices are fine, and while their name value is interesting, their contributions are brief block-quote reads that could have been anyone. Vowell, as always, excels in understanding and explaining with an equal eye for strengths and weaknesses. Her politics are clear, and while you may not always agree, they're plainly stated as her preferences and not some higher truth. She is particular adept at seeing connections between events, ideas, beliefs and people, so that even the history that you already know becomes more interesting as you see where it ties in to other things. This is am audio book for people who don't really like them, because it gets everything just right. As such, it would make a great gift-- there are plenty of people out there who won't realize they'd like this until they have it.

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.

Sarah Vowell is my type of gal: writer extraordinaire, political guru, and complete and total history nerd. Coming off the success of the off-beat and incredibly likeable Assassination Vacation, Vowell brings to us the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is her delightful new book, "The Wordy Shipmates". People familiar with Vowell's work will be charmed with the musings of her new tome. Taking on colonial America and only she can see, Vowell paints a portrait of rugged stoicism, harshness, and reflective political discourse. She introduces us to John Winthrop, a middle class businessman and Puritan lucky enough to sail to the new land on the Arbella (why no fondly mention of this ship in our history books?). Winthrop's contribution to Americana has not been forgotton, mostly in the form of Reagan's classic speech which he evoked "the shining city on a hill" as a symbol for America. Turns out, as Vowell muses, Reagan's shining city on the hill had lots of trash, homelessness (by choice!), and people dying of AIDS, unacknowledged by the conservatives in Washington. In fact, that's what Vowell is best at in this book. She gives us palatable doses of American history (so as not to scare off those people who are fact-phobic) and then writes a chain of observations of that theme (much like the radio show she often narrates for, This American Life) that are sometimes witty, and sometimes touching. In reading the aforementioned "Christian Charity" sermon, penned by Winthrope, Vowell takes us on a brief but incredibly touching journey through post 9/11 New York City, proving that yes, despite differences, we Americans DO come together and DO watch out for each other. Even in NYC. I guess I love Vowell's writing because it appeals to the inner-history geek in me; the one that loves to imagine what it was like hundreds of years ago, braving an angry ocean, ship sicknesses, and coming to a new land; filled with people from an entirely different culture, and trying to make a new life. Vowell's writing is a perfect balance of fact and op ed musings that make spending time with her books the most worthwhile.

There's nothing like a Sarah Vowell book to provide a new slant on a historical period. In "The Wordy Shipmates," she tackles a rather odd era, and one for which most people have definite opinions: the settlement of Massachusetts by the Puritans. Vowell does not reveal that the Puritans were *not* the American version of the Taliban. Certainly, they were fanatical, even by the standards of their own time, and harsh and guilt-ridden to boot. Their endless arguments about the meaning of biblical verses and their extreme hatred and fear of "Papists" put them two steps away from the loony bin. Yet they possessed attitudes (and paranoias) that put them squarely at the root of what would become the American nation character. Having arrived on these shores, by the grace of God, they were ferociously jealous of their freedom from the intrigues and violent interference of the English court and church. Worried sick about takeover by their own government, they were careful to give at least the appearance of subservience to the powerful crown. Vowell's hero is John Winthrop, the first governor of the collection of rude shacks that became the city of Boston. Winthrop is an oxymoron -- a Puritan with a streak of practical morality -- who rules with a weird combination of Christian compassion and tyrannical ruthlessness. Over a fractious and easily offended populace, Winthrop bobs and weaves like a prize fighter, somehow managing to keep his society from fragmenting. Winthrop nearly meets his match with Roger Williams though. Williams, far from being the free-speech champion that we liberals thought him to be, is even more of a Puritan than the Puritans. He finds that his austere compatriots to be insufficiently willing to separate from the ungodly, raising the hackles of "moderates" like Winthrop, and eventually earning himself banishment from the community. Yet Vowell finds the silver lining in Williams, who, arguing for a wall to keep the government out of the *church*, set the stage for future debate that bore fruit over a century and a half later in the Bill of Rights. "The Wordy Shipmates" is a fascinating read, peppered throughout with Vowell's entertaining and snarky similes and parallels. Her discussion of the way that most Americans (including herself) get their history from popular shows like "Happy Days" and "The Brady Bunch" is illuminating and a little scary. To counter this, Vowell provides plenty of primary material -- mostly from Winthrop's journals -- and provides explanations that give context and cut through the turgid 17th-century prose. Most aspects of tehstory move briskly,. Though her telling of the genocidal Pequot "War" drags a bit. She does do a great job of seeing how Winthrop's' "City on a Hill" image has been used and misused throughout history, especially by those who missed the point that at its base, the City was intended to describe a society whose members were bound to one another through Christian charity. For a closer look

Sarah Vowell is one of my favorite writers. She writes in such a way that makes history fun and interesting, even if you haven't studied it since high school. THE WORDY SHIPMATES continues this trend. It focuses on the Puritans, the wave of settlers to Massachusetts who followed the Pilgrims. They were led by John Winthrop who is probably best known for coining the term "City on a hill" made famous by several Presidents, including Reagan. Vowell also writes about Roger Williams (who after being exiled from Massachusetts, settles Rhode Island), Anne Hutchinson, and the Native Americans. Like her previous work, this is a highly entertaining read. You feel her enthusiasm for the time period. As I stated, even those who don't normally read history will find this fascinating. This may end up being my favorite book this year. I can't wait to read what she writes next.