The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell
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Book Reviews of The Wordy Shipmates
Book Review: Worth the effort to see where the roots of American Puritanism were laid and how far modern religious leaders have drifted
Summary: 5 Stars
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
Book Review: The pre-modern side of Puritan New England
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
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 at a society which we tend to judge and dismiss, "The Wordy Shipmates" book is a gem.
Book Review: Our Patriotic Ancestors Unravelled!
Summary: 5 Stars
Nathaniel Hawthorne said it best about the Puritans examined, vilified and honored in this no-nonsense, all-points-of-view historical treatment by the iconoclastic Sarah Vowell, "Let us thank God for having given us such ancestors; and let each successive generation thank Him, not less fervently, for being one step further from them in the march of ages."
A pre-requisite for reading this book is the ability to hold focus, as the author dances between past and present with historical figures, events and analysis, not always in a linear fashion. But the work is well worth the effort, for here is an author who forces us to think about just much our ancestoral legacy has shaped our domestic and foreign political policy in and beyond America. And if the reader is too lazy to do so, well Ms. Vowell covers innumerable bases before she concludes with a realistic slam-dunk, home-run vision of Puritans shaping a new land.
It all begins with some terse debunking of our stereotypical, Brady-bunch Thanksgiving dinner style picture of Puritans sitting down with the native Indians. We get a full account of the Catholic-Protestant debate back home in merry 'ol England to the point where we realize that emigration was better than the looming death waiting off-stage had they remained in England. Ms. Vowell also gives us, through examination fo the writings of John Winthrop, a superb analysis of a successful leader in those times, an intelligent, dogmatic and even dictatorial guy who knew how to spin Biblical verses into sermons that guaranteed communal agreement and obedience to authority, meaning himself, of course. The vision is clearly set forth, one to which any American might gravitate in dark times: United we stand, Divided we fall. Simple!
A large portion of this account covers the hugely antagonistic relationship between John Winthrop and Roger Williams, the latter a more excessive version of Puritanism than even those staid Puritan figures who found entertainment in attending Church several times a week. Williams attempted to teach the Native Indians in Providence the concept of original sin; the results of that effort don't make for pretty reading, understandable as it may seem if one stops long enough to really think about hearing such an idea for the first time.
Finally, we have a brief but potent treatment of Anne Hutchinson, the Puritan "brain" of the bunch, the original American Oprah, who preached that one could only know if one were saved by "feeling" it. Excommunication to the Bronx followed her vociferous preaching; the uninhabited Bronx, not the presently densely populated city within a city.
Satire, alternatingly droll with interspersed raucous humor, reflection, challenge, and meditation fill these pages with so much history connected to Nixon, Reagan, 911 and so much more that the reader occasionally has to stop or risk overload. But it's an overload that is far too infrequently heard and a welcome, refreshing burst of fresh air whirling through older significant times to hopefully create a historical future different because of this notable reading experience. Finely, finely done!
Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on February 9, 2009
Book Review: More from the undisputed pop geek post-modern goddess of American history
Summary: 5 Stars
Sarah Vowell is probably the first to admit that she's a US history geek, indeed she proudly wears the fact on her sleeve throughout her writing. Like many people obsessed with a particular topic she is hell bent on making sure everyone else appreciates her passion. This desire might be weird and discomforting were it not for Vowell's tremendous sense of humor and gift for prose.
Wordy Shipmates considers those trendy black clothed proto-goths, the Puritans, often imagined, as she puts it as "generic, boring, stupid judgmental killjoys." Not so argues Vowell, who instead describes them as "they are very specific, fascinating, brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to hell." Here we find Vowell's first thrust, that far from uninteresting, the Puritans were vibrant intellectuals. With considerable thought, she mounts piles of evidence to show how seriously these people took ideas and how many of these ideas continue to affect our culture to the present day, positioning them as startling the divide between the modern and the medieval world.
Regarding the impact of the Puritans on modern American culture, Vowell does an excellent job, particularly in separating supposition from fact, pointing out how much of the Evangelical bent laid out the Puritan's door is really rooted in the "great awakening." Even more interesting, she demonstrates how, despite the claims to the contrary that are so often repeated in modern politics, the US has a deeply rooted tradition of communitarians that stretches all the way back to these first New Englanders. Moreover, her discussion of surety vs. doubt in our culture also provides much food for thought.
For me, the book fell short in only one aspect and that only because Vowell set such a high bar in her superb "Assassination Vacation." In that earlier work she struck a near perfect balance between snarky post-modern humor, being informative, and a powerful emotive reverence that she plainly feels for the US and its history. In particular Vowell's discussion of Lincoln in that work will pull your heart into your throat.
In contrast, "Wordy Shipmates" doesn't quite achieve that perfect balance. To be sure, much of her linking to the modern world is evocative. Particularly arresting is her description of New Yorkers right after 9/11 lining up to do all they can to help rescue crews even as they breath ash composed at least in part of the remains of their fellow New Yorkers. Yet these digressions, while often thoughtful, at times lean too much to the snarky, even verging at times on preachy.
Let me say again, that shortcoming only exists because Vowell's own previous work was so extraordinary. Indeed, anyone with an interest in US history or culture will be missing out if they fail to book passage with "The Wordy Shipmates" in order to consider her thoughtful analysis.
Highly recommended.
Book Review: Boston uncommon
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a Sarah Vowell fanboy since even before Take the Cannoli : Stories From the New World came out several years ago. I especially loved her brand of historical tourism, as reflected in her essay on the Trail of Tears. I thought that Assassination Vacation took her book-writing to the next level. Here she was writing just for me -- taking an entire book to recount her trips to obscure historical markers, telling remarkable stories about forgotten slices of Americana and making brilliant parallels to today's state of affairs.
"The Wordy Shipmates" explores the Puritan settlement that became Boston, about ten years after the Pilgrims (a different breed of colonists) landed on Plymouth Rock. In trademark Vowell style, this is no dry history book with too many block quotes. Vowell constantly jumps through time to the present, finding parallels between 17th century religious leaders and our own 21st century politicians. She by turns finds things to both admire and revile among Puritans and modern-day American politicians alike.
Some of her historical observations are jaw-dropping. Who knew that a 1638 courtroom battle between governor John Winthrop and Protestant visionary Anne Hutchinson would be avenged in the 2004 Presidential debate, in which each participant had a descendant?
Other Vowell trademarks are muted this time around. There's less historical tourism on display than I recall there being in Assassination Vacation. Bennett Miller does not make an appearance, perhaps having been too busy with Capote during the research phase.
However, her love for both old-school Americana and the current political process is well on display. Her 14-page critique of Ronald Reagan, whose misuse of John Winthrop's words she decries, is a stunningly angry bit of writing. Her idealism is also showcased, especially in segments on the 9/11 attacks and John F. Kennedy. Self-described as The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Vowell is an authentic and important American voice, and I'm eagerly awaiting her next vacation.
Of course it helps that Vowell's politics aren't too far from mine. Her conclusions are not universally accepted so many will find fault with this book. Still, I think there's much worth sharing with everyone.