The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell My review
Just got my advance copy by FedEx this week. The book is due out next month. Allowing for life's usual interruptions, I plan to start it tonight. My review will be soon. In the meantime, here's the Goodreads.com description of The Wordy Shipmates.
In The Wordy Shipmates, Sarah Vowell travels once again through Americas past, this time to seventeenth-century New England. From the British Library to the Mohegan Sun casino, from the nations first synagogue to a Mayflower waterslide, Vowell studies the Puritan effect and finds their beliefs about church and state more interesting than their buckles-and-corn reputation would suggest.
She asks:
Was Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop a communitarian, Christlike Christian, or conformitys tyrannical enforcer? Yes! Was Rhode Islands architect Roger Williams Americas founding freak or the father of the First Amendment? Same difference. How come Henry Vane the Younger, who argued against beheading the English king, was himself beheaded for helping behead said king? Good question. What does it take to get that jezebel Anne Hutchinson to shut up? A hatchet.
As in all Vowells bestselling books, this exploration of Americas past is both poignant and entertaining. The Wordy Shipmates is rich with historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of Americas celebrated voices.
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