Mayflower

Nathaniel Philbrick (introduction Paul Theroux)

Folio Society edition 

£44.95

2020 will mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage from Plymouth, England to the new Plymouth in Massachusetts. The Folio Society have reissued Nathaniel Philbrick’s prize-winning account of the Puritan settlers’ first 55 years, culminating in the horrific King Philip’s War in 1675-76 and the voyage of the Speedwell shipping native Indian women and children into slavery. Although Philbrick is a maritime historian the Mayflower’s Atlantic crossing plays only a small part in this complex narrative. ‘Philip’ was the son of the Pokanoket sachem Massadoit whose initial protection enabled the Pilgrims to survive. Ingratitude, intolerance, exploitation, racism followed all too soon and, despite Philbrick’s fair-minded reflections on the eventual new Americanism, I wished the Mayflower had never left home waters.