Shelly's Book Journal

What do you remember about the Pilgrms? They landed at Plymouth rock, had a tough winter, made friends with the Indians and celebrated Thanksgiving....next thing we know, it's the French and Indian War. What happens in between? What do the Pilgrim do after that first winter and how does the colony develop? What about that little thing that has been called "Metacom's War"? What's that? Lots of things missed in the study of history. We glorify certain events and never give life to the people who made history. They become flat caracatures, pieces of their best or worst remembered and the true essence of it all lost.Philbrick attempts to recapture this lost essence of the Pilgrims - their original goal to create a Godly community of believers. A pompous Miles Standish, an ambitious Squanto who was most likely poisoned by his own people, an ever-faithful William Bradford, who never lost his devotion to God, Philip (or Metacom) the prideful warrior living in the shadow of his great father. And other characters, whose names we've never heard - Massasoit, the great father of Philip and friend to the Pilgrims, Edward Winslow - ambassador to the Indians, Benjamin Church - maverick Pilgrim who led a battalion of Indians to catch Philip. He details the Pilgrim's early movements, the starvation and then triumph. They made inroads with the Indians, and then the next generation destroyed that all - the sons of the first and greatest Pilgrims would stumble in the face of their faith and greed to make the Indians foes instead of friends. The colony's change was the beginning of a long and bad relationship with the Natives.It's only in the 19th century that Americans began to recognize some of these pieces of history, but they missed the bigger picture. They missed the truth. Even Lincoln's proclamation of Thanksgiving Day was misrepresented. (We all know the first Thanksgiving was in Virginia, anyway!) And for generations, the true stories lay untold, misremembered. Philbrick's book - backed up with full documentation and notes, gives us those missing pieces so that we may never again forget.Recommend for history lovers - especially those who want the REAL American stories.