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Because she can and, more importantly, because she has a passion for this period in history. I absolutely enjoyed "Wordy Shipmates" and would recommend it to just about anybody who 1: has even a minor interest in history or 2: loves when a witty and fun writer adds some spice to a potentially dry read. This has put Sarah Vowell on my list and I'm excited about reading her others.
Ms. In this book she took great pains to to show what a complex religious and social movement was the Puritan movement. I love getting my hands on a good history, but many are so fact filled, that they just put the reader to sleep. Vowell's life and she ties that in well.
It is one of the better histories I have read of our "Puritan Forefahters." Vowell moves beyond the the uninformed standard view of Puritans, Puritanism, being Puritanical, etc. The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell was a joy to read. Vowell understands that despite our best intentions we fail, but she admires that the Puritans keep trying, even when they get it wrong. If this book has a negative, for me, so what, Elvis Costello didn't like Margaret Thatcher. All the major New England 17th century players are featured in this work, Winthrop, Cotton, Williams, Hutchinson and so on.
The book is also a bit autobiograhical of Ms. Because of this book I have ordered other works by Sarah Vowell. Sarah Vowell's work, The Wordy Shipmates, is a great historical essay filled with humor and a great read. The writer doesn't fall into the 21st century trap of wagging her finger at those ignorant folks of times past. The great bonus here is the writer's sense of humor.
She is not high minded. Good for her. Please keep writing Sarah.
If Ms. Vowell had written my 4th grade Alabama history textbook, I'd not only have retained more, but would still be laughing.
NPR commentator Sarah Vowell takes on early American history in The Wordy Shipmates, an occasionally amusing, often thought-provoking study of the Puritans and other American colonists.Vowell does a nice job of drawing from the lessons of the past to inform the reader about what's going on in our world today (the most powerful analytic tool history gives us). She's too quick at times to make snap judgments and simplistic declarations -- a common failing of amateur historians -- but those missteps aren't enough to spoil the book as a whole.I suspect that part of this book's enjoyment was the lively reading given on the audiobook -- I'm not sure if it would have been as pleasant a read in printed form. But at any rate, it was an enjoyable and sometimes enlightening experience.
Sure, Vowell, says, they didn't swing and party, but they were passionate about their faith and their community. As usual, Sarah Vowell makes a seemingly dull subject very interesting. Vowell's writing is, as always, colloquial, not academic, and she makes clear her empathy for these hardy ancestors. She argues persuasively that the Puritans were not, as they have come to be seen, dullards and bores. They loved literature and politics, and reveled in debate and conversation. The book peters out toward the end, as the Puritans are joined by other settlers who are not so pious and their passion dissipates. Still, a good read for 7/8s of the book.
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