Mayflower: A History From Beginning to End
Inside you will read about...
✓ How Religious Upheaval Shaped American Colonization
✓ The Ship that Launched a Nation’s Future
✓ The Contract and the Crossing
✓ Arrival in America
✓ Early Life in the Colonies
✓ Pilgrims and Puritans
✓ The Ideology that Shaped a Nation
Their journey was one of courage and destiny as they forged ahead, crossing an ocean to settle in a harsh environment. They faced storms and dangerous adversaries to get to the New World. There, they built a life based on the values they held sacred, and those values would form the foundation of a new nation almost a century later. This eBook tells the story of their adventure in a concise yet thorough manner that is packed with historical detail and enjoyable to read.
Reviews (167)
Retelling of Historical Journey Loses Its Way
There is much to tell about the voyage of the Mayflower and the Pilgrims who set sail in 1620, and this would have made a great subject for an Hourly History book. Unfortunately, this book does not provide the reader with a good value. One third of the book is occupied with two subjects: a discussion on religion in Europe and the splits with the Catholic religion, and a list of all the passengers on the Mayflower. While freedom to choose and practice their religion caused Pilgrims to make the decision to leave England, this discussion on religion is big enough to merit its own book. The decision to list the passengers only pads the book’s size and serves no purpose in a book that is attempting to provide an outline of the facts in an hour. Another 15% of the book contains the References and the obligatory back matter of the book (selling more books and asking for reviews). While all this is important, readers are left with only half of the book to properly relate the story of the Mayflower. With all this extra and unnecessary stuff and fluff, important items are left out or given short shrift. The First Thanksgiving, a celebration that has been romanticized, is related in a few paragraphs and does not match other history books (In gratitude for their assistance with farming, the Pilgrims invited the Wampanoags for a feast, and were surprised when they showed up with 90 braves. Fortunately, a harvest feast was also customary for the Wampanoags, who contributed to the feast. This is contrary to the Hourly History account of the accidental arrival of 90 Natives due to gunfire). While I welcome the references, the author potentially changes history by ignoring his own references. A conversation on a website based on oral information (Reference 20 – “What Really Happened at the First Thanksgiving” pub. 2012) conflicts with Reference 5 (William Bradford, “Mourt’s Relation or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth” – pub. 1622). The author favors the Internet article over a book published 400 years ago. Even if the author disagreed with Bradford’s book, presenting both sides and allowing readers to make their own decision would have been a better choice in a history book. Unfortunately, this is not the only instance where the author reinterprets facts and introduces what could be considered as opinionated statements. The Hourly History biography states they “…focus on publishing history books that are concise, straightforward and take no longer than one hour to read.” This book is missing important information and provides many opinions, and the sidebars make it anything but concise. While I am a fan of the Hourly History series, this is one book I do not recommend. Two stars.
It's An Overview
Mayflower was an easy read from start to finish. It's a rather short read though. I didn't notice any glaring grammatical errors, so no complaints there. I knocked off a star though because it does use the BCE/CE (Before/Common Era) designations instead of BC/AD (Before Christ/Anno Domini). I'd much rather see more people give God the glory rather than scientists, but that's a personal preference. The author did keep his own personal opinions out of the work though, which I appreciated. Also the references are always good to see. All in all though, it's an overview. The church history rundown was nice, as were the reasons why the Separatists left for Leiden and then America. I also appreciated the dimensions of the Mayflower, its armaments, and the conditions they had to endure during their long journey. It was also interesting how the Separatists had brought military equipment with them. The stuff about Thomas Hunt and the Franciscan friars was also interesting. If you go into reading this expecting bullet points of what happened, then you should come away having learned some things. If you go into it expecting a thoroughly detailed recounting, then you'll end up disappointed.
Very comprehensive explanation of who the pilgrims were and their voyage on the Mayflower
I really like this book because it explained the history of the pilgrims starting with the history of Christianity and the splintering of Christianity into various groups. Also you learn the difference between the pilgrims and the Puritans. I also found it interesting that there were a number of ships called the Mayflower during that period. The book also provides the names of the 102 passengers on Christopher Joneses Mayflower. I didn't realize that the passengers were indentured servants. The book covers a lot of ground in a short period of time and appears to be very comprehensive. Lastly the book has an extensive bibliography. This is my second or third hourly history book that I have read and I intend to read more of these books.
Like about 10 percent of Americans
Like about 10 percent of Americans, one of my ancestors arrived on this ship. Many other of my ancestors came later by covered wagon. The Mayflower passengers were narrow minded, but we are talking about the early 17th century. The Mayflower passengers provides a likely accurate insight as to who they were and their lives aboard this ship, in which tragically few survived beyond the first winter, once they docked in Plimoth. We should read about the early white ancestors and the indigenous ancestors of North America, especially the now U.S.A., because we have little appreciation of the difficulties of earlier centuries -- difficulty surviving the climate, the disease, poverty, starvation. We have much to thank the indigenous peoples here, because the tribes taught the Mayflower passengers the three sisters of planting, Native American groups in North America: winter squash, maize (corn), and climbing beans (typically tepary beans or common beans). The indigenous peoples arrived on North and South American shores some 15,000 years ago or more, in several migrations, and we have much, much, much reason to thank them.
Wonderful recap of Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation founding
If you are liking for a nice recap of the history you recall learning in school, but know you've forgotten so e if the details from, I recommend this. I enjoyed the writing style / presentation of facts - informative, interesting, never talked down to me... and appreciated the way context was given (Luther, and the Protestant Reformation, lest we forget why some were dealing with religious persecution) Early on a deceptively simple question is posed : What would cause people to uproot their lives, their families, and their homes, to leave the known with all the comfort that provides, in order to face untold dangers on a perilous journey to a strange land that may never yield what they are seeking? A better life,... This booklet explores who took a chance on creating that better life, and how they went about it.
The Mayflower
This is a short story about the 102 English people that braved the Mayflower Ship in September 1620, just before the cold hard winter hit. These people left everything behind their families, friends and homes. They packed a few belongings in a trunk for freedom in a foreign land to worship and live together as a group not knowing what was ahead of them. This book is an outstanding review of true facts describing the ship, the journey and the perils of life after arriving on our soil in America. This is a fast interesting overview of our very beginnings. I enjoyed reading this story again.
Lots of information that we should know
The 1620 Mayflower is mentioned frequently on TV, newspapers, books, and speeches, but few people really know its history. In just an hour of reading the 53 pages of the Hourly History short book about the event, readers can learn much. The book tells about the Protestant Reformation that led to the Mayflower, how the Mayflower shaped future American history, about the crossing and arrival pf the pilgrims at Plymouth, what prompted them to risk their lives, what was their religious belief, how did the pilgrims pay for their voyage, how half of the 102 pilgrims who arrived in America on the Mayflower died during the first year, how the pilgrims had to leave the land and live on the Mayflower during their first winter in America, that they had no intention of creating a nation, the early years of life of the pilgrims, their associations with Indians, about the settlers who came after them, the origin of Thanksgiving, and much more.
Not a high quality book
This book was a disappointment. It felt more like a high school paper than a book. There are a number of factual mistakes and not a lot of depth. I was surprised to see a list of names of the people on the Mayflower in such a short book. This material is interesting but does not belong to a book that meant to be a quick overview where the pages should have been used to describe events, not names. In addition, the author spends a good number of pages on promoting other works and asking for reviews. All together the filler materials leave an impression that the author tried to generate as many pages as possible with as little effort as possible. This is not a high quality work. Ali Julia review
Superficial
This reads like a high school or freshman college history report. If you have little prior knowledge or if you want an overview, then this will be fine. If you are looking for insights, read William Bradford or another in depth history. I was very pained (I growled out loud) by the writer not knowing the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Even though the Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582, England and her colonies did not adopt it until 1752. The writer stated for some unknown reason a record in January was recorded as 1620 instead of 1621, even though the Pilgrims landed and signed the Mayflower Compact in November 1620. Any decent historian would not have questioned January 1620 following November 1620 or would have explained the anomaly caused by the change of calendars.
Worth the read.
It is hard to imagine how difficult this crossing must have been considering the cramped quarters, the storms they encountered, no privacy, no bathroom facilities, food in short supply, no heat or air conditioning. And then to finally arrive at their destination in the wintertime and sickness was taking its toll, reducing the original 102 persons to 53. I have a better understanding now of the differences between Pilgrims and Puritans - I used to think they were interchangeable but now I understand they were two different groups.
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