The Opposition…

The Wordy Shipmates

Sarah Vowell

Discussion: 2008-Oct-Nov-Dec

Why we're reading this: October 7, 2008; October 5, 2009
[close] October 7, 2008; October 5, 2009

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2008-Oct-Nov-Dec

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* December 2008
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 9 views

last updated Jan 07, 2011 02:50PM

* November 2008
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 9 views

last updated Jan 07, 2011 02:36PM

What Members Thought

May 04, 2010 Steven Harbin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I love Sarah Vowell. There's no other way to put it. This book is a perfect blend of historical essay and pop culture lit. Vowell's take on the Puritan Massachusetts Bay colony and Governor John Winthrop shows the "shining city on the hill" ideal as the Puritans saw it; which is not quite the way that Ronald Reagan meant it when he co-opted the phrase in the 1980's. Vowell is one of the few authors in the world today who can tie the two visions together and show how the people we are today can r ...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Judy rated it really liked it

For me, this book was really a 4.5, but I think that you really have to be interested in early American history to be as entralled with this book as much as I was. To hear conservative social commentators tell it, the United States is still "the city upon a hill" of John Winthrop. But, as Sarah Vowell discovers in The Wordy Shipmates, Puritans were very different from the impression that contemporary society has created. While being claimed by Fundamentalists of the Religious Right, Vowell point For me, this book was really a 4.5, but I think that you really have to be interested in early American history to be as entralled with this book as much as I was. To hear conservative social commentators tell it, the United States is still "the city upon a hill" of John Winthrop. But, as Sarah Vowell discovers in The Wordy Shipmates, Puritans were very different from the impression that contemporary society has created. While being claimed by Fundamentalists of the Religious Right, Vowell points out that "the Puritans live and worship within a specific subset of the Protestant Reformation--Calvinism" with its emphasis on predestination and limited atonement. She points out that although the King James Bible was available to them, it was the Geneva Bible that the Puritans brought with them to the New World. She also points out that one of the problems that the Puritan leaders had with Anne Hutchinson was that her belief that the "the Holy Ghost living inside a believer was dangerously close to a belief in immediate personal revelation." Puritans were convinced that God's will could only be discovered through the Bible as understood and interpreted by ordained ministers--the teacher and the pastor, announced in mandatory church services. One of my favorite parts of the book was the relationship between John Winthrop and Roger Williams. Williams was ultimately banished from Massachusetts Bay, but he and Winthrop remained religious opponents, but personal friends to the end of Winthrop's life. Williams was banished from the colony because of his insistence on the separation of church and state (in fact, he was the first to use that phrase). In his words, Williams believed that the government of Massachusetts Bay "opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation bwtween the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world" and he devoted his life to keeping government out of the church--not the church out of government. Williams believed that governments should allow all forms of religions, including in his words "the most paganist, Jewish, Turkish (Islamic) or Antichristian consciences." Vowell links recent events in the United States with the Puritan past, often with entertaining results, sometimes with more painful results. Vowell also reminds the reader that Perry Miller, a 20th century Harvard professor, argued that "having respect for the Puritans is not the same thing as beieving in them. An interesting thought. Oh by the way, Puritan descendants are all around us--the 2004 presidential debates were between John Winthrop's descendant, John Kerry, and a great-something-grandson of Anne Hutchinson, George W. Bush. ...more

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Sep 14, 2009 Wallace rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

For those of us who love U.S. History, this is like getting extra cupcakes at a birthday party. If Sarah Vowell had been your teacher in school, she would have been the cool one. The one whose class you couldn't wait to get to because she was smart (and by smart I mean seriously intelligent) and funny and dorky/hip and you actually remembered what she was teaching because it didn't feel like history.

In The Wordy Shipmates, Vowell takes us through the colonization of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Harold Ogle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, history

Very engaging reading, The Wordy Shipmates is essentially a long character study of the complicated figure John Winthrop, founder and on-again, off-again governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century. There is a moderate amount of history presented here, in a conversational format rather than as a strict chronology, but it serves to illustrate and illuminate the motivations behind various and diverse actions over the course of Winthrop's lifetime, from the hopeful outset of the in ...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Courtney rated it really liked it

This was the first time I have done an audio book. I really liked it, but realized that I reread things a lot. I know alot of people thought this was too much history and not enough Sarah...but I really liked the history. There is still enough Sarah for me, but I've only read one other book of hers, so maybe that is the difference. I'm just such a fan of her, I love how she is liberal, but not elitist snobby, especially when it comes to religion.
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Jul 02, 2010 Virginia rated it really liked it

Shelves: history

Vowell does an excellent job of making me care about the petty arguments of the puritans. They were an uptight, but interesting bunch. I had no idea of the intense power struggle John Winthrop went through in trying to hold the infant city of Boston together, even if some of the conflicts seemed like trivial theological battles. I also gained a lot of respect for Anne Hutchinson. The woman had guts...and was too smart for the men around her. Thus, the banishment.

Can't wait to read Assassination ...more

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Oct 31, 2008 Elsa Feiring rated it really liked it

Being the first Sarah Vowell book I've read, I truly enjoyed her style and humor. I love this kind of history when it's told with a witty bent, and she accomplishes this extremely well. I learned a good deal about the Puritans in early America, and I laughed a lot. Mission accomplished. Now I'm looking forward to reading Assassination Vacation. ...more

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Nov 13, 2022 Letitia rated it really liked it

Shelves: pb-swap, 2022

My first Sarah Vowell. I have officially found someone with exactly my sense of humor, which is to say...not for everyone. I find her delightful. It's pithy, it's history, it's pithtory. Maybe a little heavier on the research side than the humor one, and sometimes hard to follow the annoyingly similar Puritan names, but a good read with a fresh perspective. ...more

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Feb 01, 2009 Karla Keffer rated it really liked it

What I learned from this book: The Massachusetts Bay Colony seal featuring an Indian saying "Come over and help us" is a direct ascendant of the phrase "I think such-and-such would be a good experience for you." ...more

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