Philbrick renders an exhaustive (and at times exhausting) account of the U.S. campaign against the loose confederacy of Sioux nations culminating in the Battle of Little Bighorn. As can be expected, Philbrick leaves few details undercounted, but is at his best when seeking to give voice to Native...
I always loved Moby Dick. Read it over the summer in high school for AP English. I used to throw an inner tube in the pool and float around while reading. Perfect to be in the water. I loved the digressions, the poetry of it, and then just closing my eyes and imagining being on a boat. Thi...
A fascinating warts and all history of the role of Boston and the rest of Massachusetts in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, and the beginning of the war .Sometimes a bit too breathless about the personal lives of the leading figures, it paints a picture that would not be looked upon...
I had a lot of trouble with Moby Dick. Finishing it, I mean. I picked it up and put it back down twice. By the time I finally finished it - a point of honor - I'd probably read 1200 pages of it. About 150 years later, the source material was published. In the Heart of the Sea tells of the whalesh...
First off, I am to blame for having expectations. I thought Mayflower would be an easy reading general history of the Pilgrims and the foundation of the Plymouth Colony. It was, for about 1/3 of the book. It was so general that I don't think I learned anything. Little attention is paid to the how...
In stunning prose, Nathaniel Philbrick evokes the drama of the voyage of the Mayflower and the eerie emptiness of coastal Massachusetts that greeted the Pilgrims. He tells how the settlers were able to gain the friendship of many powerful Native American leaders, including the charismatic Massaso...
He was in the prime of his life—about thirty-five, strong and imposing, with the quiet dignity that was expected of a sachem.Despite his personal vigor and equanimity, Massasoit presided over a people who had been devastated by disease. During the three years that the Pilgrims had been organizing...
Many settlers returned to England to join in Parliament’s efforts to overthrow King Charles. With the king’s execution in 1649, England became a Puritan state—unimaginable just a decade before. Bradford felt compelled to turn to an early page in his history of Plymouth and write, “Full little did...
