I will admit that I enjoyed this book very much. I think Sarah Vowell did a great job of explaining how the Puritans who first settled here in 1620 & 1630 have had a continual and ongoing impact on the U.S. Her irreverent tone and tongue in cheek approach to telling their story and her own search for their modern day remnants is very well written.

I do disagree with a number of the points that argue that Vowell argues that the somehow the Puritans created this modern religious right wing colossus. Not only does she spend a great time discussing her own Pentecostal upbringing, but she does a great job of explaining how both Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were to serve as role models for many dissenters down the line.

The books one great weakness is that it does tend to meander from topic and gets diffuse at certain points. There is a lot of filler and the story often times becomes non-linear it seems. But all in all if you're a history buff and especially if you enjoyed Assassination Vacation you will enjoy this!

Witty, droll, and insightful, she took on the early Massachusetts Bay Colony--the Puritans who settled Masschutsetts Bay--Salem, Boston, Cambridge, etcetera ten years after Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock--but puts what they wrote and did in the context of their time and what occurred before and after: from John Wycliffe's fourteen century English translation of the Bible to the present, including Thanksgiving episodes in Happy Days and President Bush's justification for invading Iraq.
Vowell had a lively bunch to work with: Winthrop, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, John Cotton, and a score of others, complex characters all. She praises them for courage, perseverance, and rectitude but shows their failings as well, including a great deal of hypocrisy and cruelty, especially towards Native Americans. However, The Wordy Shipmates is not some liberal diatribe against these mythical icons. Vowell acknowledges the great debt she and we owe them--from free speech to civil rights--and freely confesses she likes them and would love to have the bunch over for a lively if contentious Thanksgiving dinner.
Some disclaimers are in order. First, to appreciate this excellent work, one must relax and get into Vowell's mind. Though enlightening, this book was written to entertain. Don't buy it if you are looking for some score to settle. It's too complex and balanced for that. Secondly, prepare yourself for its lack of chapters. Every few pages has a break set off with an oversized initial capital--a place to put the book down for dinner--but otherwise it's a 248 page essay. But that adds to the experience. The one suggestion I make is the book could be improved with an index, which would allow the reader to revisit favorite passages without rereading the entire book (an index would not assist the midnight student doing a last minute term paper--this is not a reference book.

I'm writing about the audio version of the book, and so will gloss over some of the virtues of the book itself.

One of the great treats in Vowell's work is that it's so conversational-- erudite and yet intimate at the same time. It's no surprise that Vowell completely captures that in her reading of her own work. Audiobooks often play like radio theater, or a Reading Fraught With Import. Pop this one in the car cd player, and it's like taking a trip with a smart, funny traveling companion.

There is so much nuance in the human voice, and nobody but the author is ever going to get it right. Vowell's own POV contains little quirks and dry twists of humor that few could deliver well.

The guest voices are fine, and while their name value is interesting, their contributions are brief block-quote reads that could have been anyone.

Vowell, as always, excels in understanding and explaining with an equal eye for strengths and weaknesses. Her politics are clear, and while you may not always agree, they're plainly stated as her preferences and not some higher truth. She is particular adept at seeing connections between events, ideas, beliefs and people, so that even the history that you already know becomes more interesting as you see where it ties in to other things.

This is am audio book for people who don't really like them, because it gets everything just right. As such, it would make a great gift-- there are plenty of people out there who won't realize they'd like this until they have it.

In this, Sarah Vowell's latest book, she continues to amaze us with her facts about the puritans and the pilgrams .....and all of those characters in our American History...in the delightful captivating way that only Sarah can make history riviting. keeping us reading non-stop. This is a book you must read, and as the quote from the dust jacket says, "Thou shalt enjoy it."

truly I don't know of my own knowledge about the contents of the book, but my daughter was completely delighted to receive it. Her eyes lit up when she saw it. We both like this author.

Although I politically disagree with her, I really enjoy Sarah Vowell's books. She is a good writer, and I admire her ability to pull seemingly disparate subjects together into an illuminating whole. However, no matter how much I tried, I could not make myself enjoy this book. I learned a few things, but one of those things is how annoying a really hysterical opposing political voice can be. I don't have any illusions that America is perfect and everything we do is right, but we're certainly not the hideous criminal mess that she seems to think we are. The breaking point for me came with her attempt to compare America right now with the Soviet Union in the height of the purges ("I have heard the screams") Really Sarah? Really. Yes, that's fair, because I remember when the staff members of NPR and the Village Voice and every other Republican-hating media group got hauled away in the night and taken to a gulag...Oh, except for that never happened. And I remember when the leaders of the Democratic Party disappeared...Oh, except for that never happened either.
I understand the desire for a real drama, the sense that you are manning the barricades against evil, but really now. It just comes across like a hysterical child lying on the ground screaming and kicking. I just desparately hope once Barack Obama is in the White House she can just calm down and get back to writing rational thought-based books once again.

When I was an undergraduate, I took a class in Horace's Odes. Every single one of my papers came back with the notes "It's very tedious reading about your personal life and pop culture references." Sadly, I had two years of undergraduate experience to contend with so I wasn't able to reverse 12 years of high school and 2 years of undergraduate writing where I managed to get away with throwing personal stories into papers. Eventually I learned how to write papers about the topic at hand without mentioning my ex-girlfriend, my cats, my roommates, etc., etc.

Sadly, Sarah Vowell never took that class or any class like it. If she did, it didn't take. Ostensibly about the puritans, this book is all about Sarah Vowell. In the first couple of disks I learned about the speech that sent the Puritans on their way, the background of English religious infighting (fairly common knowledge but some need it), and the "City on the Hill" speech. That's what I learned about the Puritans.

About Sarah Vowell I learned that she has an apartment in New York, she really liked the movie Reds. She didn't like Reagan. She really didn't like Reagan. She thought that Mondale lost the election in 1984 because he talked about the other aspects of The City on the Hill speech as opposed to the fact that he ran on a platform to raise taxes (no seriously. he did. Minnesota will never elect a president because we value honesty WAY too much.) She had a really bad day on 9/11. And she grumbled a lot during Reagan's funeral. At parties, her NPR friends thought she was nuts for wanting to study the Puritans but she found some of their writings comforting. She watched a lot of Happy Days as a kid. And when asked who the most hated general was in the American REvolution, she didn't know (ok that one brought the "when we pretended to fight Cornwallis. Hate that guy." line which is mildly amusing.) And she also liked The Brady Bunch.

For every one piece of information she manages to throw in about the puritans, she inserts dozens of annoying stupid tales about the LIFE OF SARAH VOWELL. And seriously, Sarah Vowell is an annoying woman. And before you think that I'm some Sarah Palin redneck sniping at the elitist liberal New Yorkers, know that I am a liberal New Yorker (actually I'm more a Minnesotan in my political inclinations. Loved Wellstone. Not sure about Franken.) and Obama is the culmination of many years of dreaming about who I wanted to be president. I'm just not an NPR snob that thinks that everyone who disagrees with me is automatically stupid or inbred.

Ultimately, her book might be good but her condescending mannerism and self-involvement kill it. I would give it two stars but I was listening to the audio book and her annoying little girl voice makes the thing much more grating.

As a descendant of the Puritans I was glad to see Sarah Vowell follow-up her wildly successful Assassination Vacation with a book about these founding fathers. As a fan of Vowell's work on NPR I knew I'd be in for a fun read. But don't go thinking this is just a narrative history book. If kids could learn American history from books like this, they'd be enthralled and never skip class.

Vowel somehow manages to weave present day rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones into 17th Century New England history. She has become an expert at giving a historical account with a bit of a twist in her own unique voice. Through stories about John Winthrop, Roger Williams, and Ann Hutchinson she gives readers a unusual look at life in 1600s America.

Sarah Vowell has become a master at educating readers on American history while entertaining them. Dead presidents, Puritans - I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

By "All" I mean the Puritans, the founding of the Massachussetts Bay Colony, and the subsequent role these events had in the development of the United States and the strange and wonderful notion of "American Exceptionalism."

And she manages to make it funny and interesting, no mean feat in my opinion.

I became interested in this book after seeing her on The Daily Show. I thought she was amusing, and Jon Stewart was clearly smitten with her, so when the opportunity arose for me to listen to The Wordy Shipmates, I jumped at the chance. I know some people find her voice, imagine Cindy Brady all grown up and sardonic, annoying, but I rather liked Sarah Vowell's narration. She wrote the book, so she knows where all its sweet spots are, and she uses them to great narrative effect. She has a tendency, in her storytelling to wander off down little historical and pop culture side alleys, another feature of the book some found annoying, but I rather liked. Listening to these CDs was like listening to a chatty friend tell you all the old gossip about John Winthrop and Anne Hutchinson and the Pequots and all those other early colonists who are only vaguely half-remembered, and even then, only as stereotypical Puritan types with stern visages and starched white collars.

For those of you who didn't know where Ronald Regan got his rhetorical image of America as a shining city on a hill, it comes from John Winthrop's great Sermon, A Model of Christian Charity. He got his imagery from the Bible. This image, and the belief it fostered that the Almighty has had a role in this country's Great Experiment, is the foundation, she argues, of the notion of American Exceptionalism.

I have listened to other audiobooks by Sarah Vowell have enjoyed them all. Her voice can be a little jarring for those who have only listened to honey-toned narrators of audiobooks. What makes it so important to hear these books in her voice is the obvious love of her subjects. Vowell's specialty is bringing to life what were previously obscure moments in history. In the Wordy Shipmates she tells the story of 17th century New England Puritans and their battles with themselves and the native Americans. She excels at finding 21st century analogies to illustrate the perceptions of 17th century people. You will always learn a lot from a Sarah Vowell book and this is no exception.

My only quibble is that I was expecting to hear more about the Plymouth settlers. This book discusses mostly the period of 1630 to 1690. This as a great listen just before our USA Thanksgiving celebration. I have a new understanding beyond the stereotype of some of the first Europeans who shaped our country's principles, both good and bad.

I've been a longtime fan of Sarah Vowell. Unfortunately, this isn't my favorite book of hers. What I really love about her other books is that I can pick them up, read a chapter or two, put it down and come back to it a couple of weeks or months later and read a little more. The chapters tend to be self-contained little stories. She dives in for a little taste of something, explores it, add some anecdotes and then moves on. This book is different in that it's all one in depth look at the Massachusetts Bay Puritans, well, more specifically, one of those Puritans (Winthrop).

Before this book, I was not very familiar with the subject, but I love history so I enjoyed learning more about the Puritans. It's just that it's a little too much. This would have been better as a shorter piece in one of her books covering several subjects. It's great history, it's just a little more in depth than I really needed.

I've seen Sarah Vowell on the Daily Show and thought she was pretty funny. I always planned to buy one of her books but never got around to it. This may have been the wrong choice for me because I am not a history buff at all. But I can totally appreciate the effort and knowledge that went into writing this book. I give her four stars for the work alone.
I found the subject matter pretty boring, and I never would have finished this in book form. But since I could listen to this audiobook on my commute to work, it wasn't too taxing.
And I know it's not something she can help, but at times I found her lisp a bit annoying and wished she had hired someone else to read the book.
Overall, I do recommend this to anyone who, unlike me, really likes history.

Sarah Vowell, like many of us, was likely introduced to "the shining city on the hill" by President Ronald Reagan. Reagan used the metaphor to describe the America people longed for, an admirable and special place that other nations could emulate. "In my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace," Reagan said. "A city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still."

Reagan, of course, was borrowing from Puritan leader John Winthrop, who gave his famous "city on a hill" speech to his followers as they came from England to their new home in America in 1630. These Puritans, who would go on to found the city that would become Boston, had an opportunity to build their own society from the ground up.

"...we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us," Winthrop told his fellow immigrants. "So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses."

They looked for guidance, not from their home in England but from more ancient role models. How many people in our supposedly devout nation of Christians recognize the true source of the words as Jesus Christ? In Winthrop's time, the reference would be obvious. Jesus's words come from Matthew and inspired Winthrop and the Puritans deeply.

"You are the light of the world," Jesus told his followers in his famous Sermon on the Mount. "A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Today, an alleged evangelical like Sarah Palin credits the phrase to Reagan, apparently unaware of its biblical background. It's a contrast Vowell spends plenty of time on. For all of their faults, these Puritans understood and studied the Bible. They were also obsessed with learning, making a point to create Harvard University to educate their young leaders. It's a stark contrast when compared to modern conservative leaders who consider educated men "elitist" and want to place the Ten Commandments in public schools yet cannot name all 10. As Vowell shows, these modern religious leaders have all of the egotism of their forefathers, but it isn't egotism that is tempered by humility, devotion and fear.

Vowell is one of our most interesting writers, always sure to bring a unique perspective and modern twist to her historical wanderings. It speaks volumes that she has successfully made a book inspired by Puritan sermons interesting and vital. It isn't nearly as breezy or as easy a read as her previous, more personal essays in ASSASSINATION VACATION, but it's worth the effort to see where the roots of American Puritanism were laid and how far modern religious leaders have drifted from their influences.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Snowden

If you're reviewing an audiobook, one of the things you have to address is, well, the audio. So I may as well get this out now. I'm not a fan of Sarah Vowell's voice. I know, I know, she's on radio all the time. And she's the voice of Viola in The Incredibles, one of my favorites movies too. But on NPR her voice comes at you in small packets of sound. The same is even more true of her voice work in The Incredibles, where she only gives us a line or two in a row. But to be honest, it's a tough voice to listen to for hours, even broken up as it is by other readers doing some of the sections (reading bits of diary or various proclamations for instance).
If you can get by the voice (and as I said, it's hard to do over an extended time so I suggest listening in short segments), then how is the content? Mixed. The strongest part is Vowell's examination of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, starting with them setting sail and continuing into their settling and maintenance of the Colony for about the first ten years or so. She's clearly done her research (in fact, she tells us of her research several times) and makes good use of primary documents--diaries, logs, speeches, etc. These are the lesser known Pilgrims and certainly worthy of our attention, especially for their enduring influence on America, which is really Vowell's major point. She delves into their reasons for leaving, their internal differences, their relations with the native americans, their "break-ups" with Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. Sometimes, as she readily admits, the minor theological points can be a bit tedious, but she is a good enough writer that she knows how far to carry it before spinning off into a relieving change of topic, either still in the historical vein or breaking us utterly free with a reference to the Brady Bunch as the great educational program of a generation.
That humorous mix of the present and the past, where Vowell sticks to a sharp-eyed and equally sharp-toned look at popular culture (use that last word loosely here she seems to say) is the book's second-best attribute. Not all such reference work, but many, and probably most do and they often provoke both laughter and thought.
The least successful aspect of the book is when she tries to tie in modern-day politics/economics. Here, too often, her connections seem a bit of a stretch, her conclusions more pre-ordained than discovered through her research. And I say this as someone who shares her politics. My guess is those who don't will find these moves even more annoying.
Without them, and if the book were read rather than listened to, I'd probably have rated it a strong four. The weakly drawn connections to modern-day knock it down to a strong 3 and the voice down to a solid 3. I'd recommend the Wordy Shipmates, but as a book to hold in your hand and read rather than one to listen to.

A revelation and a new approach to the religious conflicts faced by the early settlers of New England. Various interpretations of man's place in relation to God brought about basic differences in the methods of establishing new communities, some resulting in pretty drastic penalties.
The writing is humorous, sometimes tongue in cheek, yet always with a keen perception of the characters and eccentricities of the founding fathers of our country. A little knowledge of the early settlers of New England would make the book and its characters "come alive" more graphically.

Sarah Vowell has done it again. Her easy style and simple analogies keep the reader interested and the pace moving - in spite of what might be considered a droll subject. The references to TV shows such as "Bewitched", "Happy Days", and "The Brady Bunch" make it clear that Vowell is a product of the modern media generation.

"'Bobby, the Indians were friendly at first,' says Mrs. Brady. 'They didn't start fighting until their land was taken away.'

Bobby: 'You mean the Pilgrims took away all the Indians' land?'

'That's right,' answers Mr. Brady, who immediately looks regretful at this pointblank lapse of patriotic-forefather boosterism and adds, 'Uh, well, at first they didn't take much of it.'"

Later she writes, "There isn't much difference between tall tales that start, 'Listen my children and you shall hear' and 'Here's the story of a man named Brady.' In other words, Americans have learned our history from exaggerated popular art for as long as anyone can remember...."

Sarah Vowell is an American treasure.

This is the first book of Sarah Vowell's writings that I've read. I didn't know what to expect, not having heard much of her on NPR. I found her treatment of the Massachusetts Bay colony and its leaders engaging. She deftly mixes sharp and snarky comments from today's perspective in with her exposition of what the principal issues, religious and pragmatic, confronting the leaders of the colony. However, it also seemed a little bit random at times, as though she would tire of discussing one aspect of the colony and then pick up a new thread without much transition. That made the history a but more desultory than I'd like, but I'm sure everyone's mileage will vary on that point. It might make things less dry for other readers.

Overall, I'd recommend The Wordy Shipmates as an accessible history of the Bay colony that figures so significantly--if not prominently--in our nation's history.

I really enjoyed this book from several perspectives. First and foremost I enjoy anything that gives solid analysis to the Boston - Salem Puritans. And I thought Vowell did that. She did some significant research here to anchor the work in the words of the wordy shipmates. On this same note I enjoyed the way Sarah showed how the lives and works of Winthrop, William and Hutchinson impact the periods between then and now. I wish she'd given a little more time to Endicott....and I disagree with her spelling of his name. He was a real force to be reckoned with, but she clearly capture his essence.

The work is also timely given our current political and economic climate.

Another thing I picked up on and is very personal to me, it the spiritual journey component. I was very glad to get some one elses perspective on the spiritual life these people were wrestling with, right or wrong. Who is anyone to say.

Sarah clearly has a twisted sense of humor and I wish she would have taken that up another notch or two, but then who knows what the editors did to that.

Easily can recommend this book to any students of New England history or anyone interested in religious fanatics.

I love the Puritans. They probably would not have accepted me as I am for sure. But I am a direct descendant of them...although my ancestors fled the community at first chance.

You can't review a Sarah Vowell book. Sarah Vowell isn't an author, she's a lifestyle. You either live that lifestyle or you don't. In a way this book is the most universal of hers as it's the closest to a straight historical and so may find its way into the type of hands that senselessly turn presidential biographies into bestsellers. If you know Sarah Vowell you should read this book. Not doing so is like turning your sister away when she shows up at your house with three kids that need to use the bathroom. Meaning, you're a bad person if you don't read it. She only writes a book every couple years. Your relationship will be strained if you don't make the effort.

It was a little boring.

Seven Kitties: aren't you a piece of work ? The first thing you mention in a book review is a slight physical trait that the author can't help having !
Aren't you such a nice person ?
Looking at your photo I can see why you feel the need to criticize others !
Hah !
This book was very unique and interesting and extremely well written and very worth one's time.
A learning experience !

Upon reading this book, I struggled for a few days on how many stars to give this. At times, I really liked Vowell's very personal-essay-like history of the Pilgrims at the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Vowell is very knowledgeable and, at times, is a very good and passionate writer. At times, however, I was also either bored by redundancy, waiting for a seemingly episodic collection of essays to "come together" and read like a book, or annoyed by Vowell's constant employment of sarcasm.

Alas, I chose to give this book 3 of 5 stars. I figure that the best way to explain is to go through a list of pros and cons.

PROS: _________________________________________

Vowell's book on the Pilgrims is obviously a very personal one, and her enthusiasm and passion for the subject shows very well. She recounts not only the tortuous adventure the Pilgrims took from Britian to America and their struggle to build a city, but also tours she has been on, journals she has pored through, and what the Pilgrims mean to her.

The Wordy Shipmates works best - works quite well - when it is read as a collection of themed essays, rather than a flowing book. Once I began to read it in this way, I was better able to admire Vowell's frequent and lengthy asides (where an essay on x quickly becomes an essay on y). Each essay explores some facet about the Pilgrims - their religiosity, their caring nature, their admiration of hard work - but each essay stands on its own more than connects with other essays.

CONS: ____________________________________________

As something of a collection of essays, Vowell can be (quite) redundant. When exploring the Pilgrims, she often goes back to the same points (every other essay seems to come back to how the "City on a HIll" metaphor led to US exceptionalism; true, but no more true the hundredth time than the first.) Many essays focus on the same topics over and over through slightly different "angles." Good for a 20 minute NPR piece, but not for a book.

For a book on such a meaty subject, I really found Vowell's frequent sarcasm and attempts at humor a little out of place and repetitive. I suppose that towards the end of the book, I felt the way I did after seeing Juno; the quips are interesting at first and annoying half way through.

FOR THOSE CONTEMPLATING THE AUDIOBOOK: I fully agree with another reviewer who advised that this book may be better read than listened to. While some might find Vowell's "Lisa Simpson with a lisp" voice endearing, I find that her akward delivery made the listening...well...akward. Nor did I like the fact that EVERY SINGLE quote in the book is read by a guest reader (which is fine when they are reading a passage, but tedious when they are reading one or two words).

I wholly reccomemnd this book for those wanting to read a decent collection of historical essays they don't want to have to think too deeply about.

Wordy indeed! Sarah is certainly a disturbed person. Hates Christians, USA, puritans and who knows what else. No wonder the CDs are so cheap. Her humor ranks with Madelyn O'Hare.

At least have a pleasant voice. Failing that, at least try not to have an irritating lisp-like speech impediment. It was a chore to listen to this voice for seven full hours. She has that common affliction of a uprise in her voice at the end of every phrase that makes her text sound like a choppy surf and very hard to hear where she was trying to be funny.

She does have some really genuinely funny moments, her research is impeccable, and she wears her politics on her sleeve. In a way, I respect that--she's not one of those who pretend to be objective. She finds any Republican an idiot for believing the same things that the Boston colonists also believed, and she's pretty blunt in her expression of that contempt. But just beware what you're getting--this is less a 'history' than an apologia for America's naive hubris sprouted from seeds planted by the Massachusetts Bay colonists. If you know that going in, it's enjoyable, entertaining, and gives a really wonderful picture of the lives of early colonists.

I was troubled by the idea that anyone who believes that Americans who believe that America is the 'city on the hill' (for good and bad) are naive dupes who haven't been able to grow beyond the flimsy self-consoling propaganda of Winthrop and his buddies. I agree that many of these ideas, including the 'manifest destiny' to promote Christianity to the Native Americans led America's history into some very dark areas of colonizing and racism, and in those points, Vowell is absolutely compelling. It's really made me think further on what being an American means, and where these ideas and values came from.

I don't think anyone not already well-versed in American history would find this a) interesting (pamphlet wars only appeal to those who know their seventeenth century) or b) particularly compelling. If you don't already have some familiarity with the major players--Winthrop, Williams, Hutchinson, etc--especially in an audiobook format, you may find keeping them straight very confusing.

The facts are enlightening. Vowell's editorial comments and delivery will cause milk to come out your nose. The most fun I've had learning history in my life.

When I listen to a book in audio format, I usually review the book itself and then finish with any relevant aspects of the audio production. The Wordy Shipmates, however, presented some issues in the listening that need to be mentioned first.

Audio can be challenging when it masks the structure of the book. Sometimes the listener can't discern where the chapters begin, for example. I had that problem with SHIPMATES, and thought I was a little bit lost purely because I wasn't holding the book in my hands. Having looked at a copy in the library, I see that's not the case. The book does, unfortunately, ramble on.

Author and radio personality Sarah Vowell has a catchy approach to history. Her topic is the Puritans who sailed to New England in 1630 on the Arbella, led by John Winthrop holding a royal charter and the governorship of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The story covers the period of 1630 to about 1638. The main players -- Winthrop, Roger Williams, John Cotton, Anne Hutchinson ("the Puritan Oprah") -- are brought to life by Vowell's thorough and irreverent treatment. The Puritans were bent on reforming ("purifying") the Church of England, while the earlier Pilgrims were Separatists and wanted to leave the Church entirely. The fine points of that distinction are of great interest to Vowell and she does an earnest job of explaining them.

While on the Arbella John Winthrop gave a sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity," setting out his vision for the new colony. A line from the sermon becomes a touchstone in this story: "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us."

Once Vowell has the shipmates under sail, she launches into a canvass of what we know of the Puritans from popular culture: The Brady Bunch, Bewitched and Happy Days. And so it goes. After discussing the horrors of the Pequod War and the Mystic Massacre, we visit the Mohegan Sun casino on tribal land in Connecticut where the massacre is memorialized in diorama and film at the Pequod Museum. Describing a trip to Boston, the Oklahoma native writes, "Coming from the West, where history, like everything else, is so spread out, and even then it's mostly grubby Indian wars and greedy copper barons with a little Lewis and Clark in between, I never get sick of the way every inch of Boston seems so jam-packed with the important past." Got whiplash yet?

I wouldn't want to do without the digressions as the book would be dense stuff without them. But the organization suffers and the theme is hard to find amid the clever ramblings. For most of the book Governor Winthrop's idealistic devotion to the communal spirit seems to be the main theme, but toward the end his rough treatment of Anne Hutchinson puts him out of favor with Vowell.

In the end the reader will know much more about this complex period in New England history, which is a good thing. There are six hours of entertainment on the audio version, also a good thing. If the scope and theme had been more closely defined, it might have been an even more rewarding book.

One last note on the audio: you may already be familiar with Sarah Vowell's voice from public radio and from her performance as Violet in the animated film THE INCREDIBLES. If not, be advised that her reading voice is quirky and unusual

Linda Bulger, 2008

As an agnostic / atheist who also keeps thinking about his religious past (mine is catholicism) I enjoyed Ms Vowell's shared journey through the early years of New England, and a deep discussion of what the Puritans were all about. That they were more interesting that we thought is worth finding out, what is also useful is to note the present day residue in American thought, both in the mainstream (many of us think of America as a city on a hill) and in religious practice - think the Bible belt. Though as Sarah reminds us, she came from there and they were and are earnest. Simply worth reading for anyone interested in the history.

This book makes the Puritan Era relatively understandable. That is no small task. We have a couple of iconic understandings of the period. Over here, the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving. Over there, a phrase, 'the city on the hill'. Alas, neither of these mean much, or they have been corrupted to modern ends.

The problem with the Puritans is that they exist within a narrow historical context. There were fights between Protestants and Catholics in Europe, the Thirty Years War. England stayed out of that War, something that figures in the Puritan narrative. But, England got Cromwell, a Puritan, a bit later. The book does not get into this, except tangentially, and the English Civil War had political and religious elements. If Cromwell and the English Civil War end Puritanism, that's probably too much for an American history of this period.

The Puritans had a view of Protestant theology different from the Anglican church, different enough for Puritans to seek shelter in America, but not so much they really separated from England. So we don't really think of Puritans in a modern sense. That context is missing. And we don't really tie the Puritans back to England to understand that side of the story.

Still, this is real history, especially the parts about Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. These two actually represent ideas that become American ideas. Playing off against both of them is John Winthrop, the man who saw the 'city on the hill'. Winthrop is 'The Man', being the governor, but also an arbiter of religious issues. This mix of Church and State is largely what the book discusses, what Williams and Hutchinson were against.

So here is America that becomes a refuge for religious freedom, a place where the practicalities of religious freedom are worked out. And America avoids much of the pain of religious wars.

Instead, alas, it gets Indian Wars. This is grim stuff, detailed in horrific fashion by Ms. Vowell. The failure of religious ideals to prevent Indian Wars is something to ponder. How does religion get corrupted and serve pure brutality? One has to ask what religious freedom means when it can't give perspective to extreme violence.

I listened to the author's audio version. History often works well at the slower pace of an audio book, and the author adds a second dimension to the writing style with her reading style.

There are times when the organization seems cumbersome, but it ultimately works. Some of the contemporary commentary seems less convincing than the historical presentation. This is an ambitious work, and Sarah Vowell deserves a lot of credit, but the material could probably be presented so it starts to tie together a little earlier. I fear some people may give up, or lose the thread.

I inadvertently chose this audio version of the book, thinking it was a book, but it was a cd! I am glad now, because Sarah Vowell's reading of her own work was excellent. Think of Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower meets Saturday Night Live.

Vowell work is funny, entertaining and well researched, both serious and hilarious, and overall, brutally honest. She manages to give a informative retelling of the Puritan history of Massachusetts, without being dull or over wordy herself. Vowell also manages to relate much of the Puritan's problems to our problems in the US currently.

My 13 year old daughter heard a lot of this in the car with me as well, and she really enjoyed it. One time, when my 11 and 13 yo girls were in the car, and Vowell was talking about Roger William's banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by John Winthrop and how Winthrop secretly told Williams they were coming to forcibly send him back to England (giving Williams time to pack his family and run away to what is now RhodeIisland) the girls, in unison, said "aawwwww." Yes, this was that good--it entertained a tween and a teen. My 7 year old hated it however!

I would highly recommend this timely and educational book. I will be looking forward to reading more Sarah Vowell.

I have been quoting this book for a month now--it's so perfect during this ground-breaking election season. So much of our early history is eerily apropos to today. Well, maybe it's not so eerie, considering the influence the Winthrop era players have had on the founding of this country. Vowell is adept at tying the 17th century with the 20th and 21st centuries, and provides big enough chunks of original text to help make Winthrop and Williams and the rest of the wordy folks come alive, and for us to see them as three-dimensional people who may have been self-righteous but who also worried deeply about doing the right thing.

I checked this out of the library but am finally turning it back in and will buy a copy for my family and one for my history-buff mom. In addition to being a lively read, it's fairly short, considering its depth, so it won't get stuck on the bedside table with a bookmark in the the second chapter, like those tomes you thought would be good for your brain but turned out to be better for your sleep.

Sarah Vowell exhibits the qualities of an exceptional wordsmith in the audio book version of her book THE WORDY SHIPMATES. With a constant tongue-in-cheek, she interweaves into the story of the Puritan's journey to America and their influence in today's influences and occurrences with back stories on the participants and those who influenced the Puritans who first ventured to America's shores.

It isn't often that one gets to listen to an exceptional writer, one who obviously knows her stuff and, even if on some accounts she may be playing with a critical view of the past, as comprehended by her attitudes, the manner by which she ties everything up with a bow is a joy to behold.

Unfortunately, her actual voice during the reading of her book tends to be rather mono toned at times, and rather nasal, with a slight lisp. This isn't enough to dissuade a tolerant listener from buying the audio CD version, for I have bought an extra copy as a gift for a friend, but enough to recommend that one read the book and just imagine someone like Dorothy Parker or even Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Bell Jar CD, reading her words instead.

I nonetheless found it an enjoyable listen, and I eventually found after the first CD or so that her lack of vocal qualities a little more bearable.

In this well produced Audiobook, Sarah Vowell gives a great perspective on the people, beliefs, and lifestyles around the first settlers were coming to America. The author's witty sense of humor combined with an overwhelming amount of factual data lends itself well to a history lesson like you've never been taught in school. While the author does tend to throw her own anti-religious bias into the story at times, and more than once is more than happy to take a stab at the Rebublican party anytime modern day politics is brought up, that can be overlooked due to the incredible insight she breathes into the lives and struggles of the men and women that helped form what we now know as America.

I agree with the other reviewers that at times, it can be a bit "wordy", but the book isn't long to the point of exhaustion. There are many celebrity voices used to read quotes, and the music between chapters is a nice touch. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in the beginnings of this country but also has a sense of humor and doesn't mind dealing with the biased leanings of the author on occasion.

Many readers will come to "The Wordy Shipmates" via the same route and reason I did: I enjoyed "Assassination Vacation." I expected the pilgrims would get the same work out as history of America's first three presidential assassinations--travelogue, history, connecting the dots along history's timeline to reveal America's growth as a nation and culture, and a dose of Vowell herself, a passionate, opinionated history geek with a penchant for irony. In "Shipmates," there is far less present day geographical travel and less of her quirky self in the narrative. What she mostly does is travel through the words of New England's founding Puritans to sort out the ideas that shaped things to come, how they did and did not play out, and to see how they reverberate today.

Vowell is right: when pilgrims come to mind, it's a big harvest feast with happy Indians. People tend to think they arrived all at the same time, and that the witch trials of Salem were on the heels of the disembarkation at Plymouth. In fact, the immigration began flowing with the Mayflower in 1620 and covered much of the 17th century which closed with the Salem trials. The Puritans were not all of one mind and belief, either. In fact, they struggled among themselves regarding the tenets of their faith, their relationship with Mother England, what New England should be and not be, and how to treat one another and the Indians. Vowell mostly focuses on the events of the 1630s, when Roger Williams was banished to the wilderness where he carved out Rhode Island, when the domineering Anne Hutchinson rattled male leaders, and when things went from "the Indians want us to help them and we'll do our best" to the Pequot War that batted clean-up on the devastation that European microbes had already wreaked, thus making way for the state of Connecticut.

I give Vowell a 5 for doing her homework, for casting out misconceptions and finding out just who the founders were, what they believed and what were their actual legacies. She is amazingly lucid given that her travels are largely intellectual among a pithy bunch. I give her a 4 for the fact that it is rendered in one long episodic essay--no chapters, no index. This does not have the bouncing-off-the-walls headiness of "Vacation," but she gets at our Americaness in a meditative but urgent way that is effective, so I'll stick with the full 5 points.

As a New Yorker and self-professed member of the media-elite who hails from a conservative, Western, small town, Pentecostal background, Vowell delights in historical contradictions and deep roots.

NPR contributor, humorist and author of "Assassination Vacation," and "The Partly Cloudy Patriot," Vowell focuses a lens of irreverent respect on the Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This is the larger group that followed the Pilgrims in 1630 and established Boston. They were somewhat more business-oriented than the Pilgrims and considered themselves members of the Anglican Church rather than Separatists like the Pilgrims.

It's partly for this that Vowell is drawn to them. "Maybe it's because I live in a world crawling with separatists that I find religious zealots with a tiny bit of wishy-washy, pussy-footing compromise in them deeply attractive."

Looking over their legacy - the Puritan work ethic, separation of church and state, the concept of personal salvation - Vowell focuses on three outsize personalities.

John Winthrop led the group on their journey to the New World, became governor of Massachusetts and left a massive diary. Roger Williams was banished for his opinions, particularly his insistence that government not interfere in religious matters, and left to found Rhode Island. Anne Hutchinson was banished too after a trial over her ideas of personal salvation made her seem dangerously witch-like.

Vowell takes us through the turbulent history of those days - the Indian wars and shifting alliances, problems with England and the Crown, internal squabbling and the founding of Boston. But her real interest is on the concepts that have echoes throughout our history.

The Puritans' Calvinist belief in themselves as the chosen people has come down to us pretty well perfectly preserved. Winthrop's sermon to his shipmates, "Christian Charity," exhorts them to show themselves as models of Christian fortitude, "For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill." In other words, the eyes of the world will be watching.

Though this sermon was barely mentioned in Winthrop's day, it has since served up quotes to numerous politicians. One of Reagan's favorite images was "that shining city on a hill."

Vowell revels in the double-sided whammies of zealotry. She mines Winthrop's sermon for its exhortations to love one's enemy, to help each other at all costs, to show justice and mercy. And explores the underside of this confident righteousness morality - enforced conformity, intolerance of dissent, an iron-handed holier than thou perspective.

Roger Williams, a man I was taught in school to think of as a moderate, was an argumentative zealot, who believed that everybody else was wrong. He didn't want government interfering in his religion though and for that we thank him. As for Anne Hutchinson: "She suffers the same fate in the historical record as the Pequot; her thoughts and deeds have been passed down to us solely through the writings of white men who pretty much hate her guts."

Vowell makes connections between the founders and our national character - from Reagan and Martin Luther King Jr. to the community of New Yorkers after 9/11. Our system of government, from electing a president to rustling up the Patriot Act, has its roots in the Puritans.

Vowell's examinations of these connections and the history itself is serious and funny, quirky and contemplative. Sure, some of the religious distinctions and heated arguments are pretty dry, but if anyone can enliven them, it's Vowell.

Given the list of guest voices, and the usually entertaining Sarah Vowell, who I've seen on The Daily Show a number of times and seems to have a great sense of humor, I thought this audio-book would be a good listen. It's not. Mainly read by the author herself, Vowell simply does not read the book with the same kind of enthusiasm I've seen her display on television. The jokes, which may be a bit funnier on the page, fall flat due to a slow, lackadaisical delivery. And, I must say this, Vowell has a high voice and lisp, which is utterly unsuited to this format. With all the talent on-hand, she would have been better off having one of these fine actors do the main narration in her place.

After slogging through the first disc, I knew I wouldn't continue with the rest of the book. Vowell is a talented writer, and I think the printed version of this book is probably a fine read. But go ahead and read it yourself.

This marvelous little book is a delight to the ear. Part erudite exploration of the foundations of American history, part travelogue, and part comedy routine, this book is like a wonderful little mine shaft, opening the thought process upon a multitude of avenues for future reading. Irreverent and intrepid, it is as well produced as any audio book I have listened to. Bravo!

Sarah Vowels amusing history of the Puritans and the Native Americans around them, is engaging, scholarly, and, yes.... funny. It takes a good writer to subtly highlight the ironies of 17th Century New England. She liberally cites primary documents from the time period. Her greatest triumph is her ability to make the period come alive and relate it to today's America.

Sarah Vowell is probably the first to admit that she's a US history geek, indeed she proudly wears the fact on her sleeve throughout her writing. Like many people obsessed with a particular topic she is hell bent on making sure everyone else appreciates her passion. This desire might be weird and discomforting were it not for Vowell's tremendous sense of humor and gift for prose.

Wordy Shipmates considers those trendy black clothed proto-goths, the Puritans, often imagined, as she puts it as "generic, boring, stupid judgmental killjoys." Not so argues Vowell, who instead describes them as "they are very specific, fascinating, brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to hell." Here we find Vowell's first thrust, that far from uninteresting, the Puritans were vibrant intellectuals. With considerable thought, she mounts piles of evidence to show how seriously these people took ideas and how many of these ideas continue to affect our culture to the present day, positioning them as startling the divide between the modern and the medieval world.

Regarding the impact of the Puritans on modern American culture, Vowell does an excellent job, particularly in separating supposition from fact, pointing out how much of the Evangelical bent laid out the Puritan's door is really rooted in the "great awakening." Even more interesting, she demonstrates how, despite the claims to the contrary that are so often repeated in modern politics, the US has a deeply rooted tradition of communitarians that stretches all the way back to these first New Englanders. Moreover, her discussion of surety vs. doubt in our culture also provides much food for thought.

For me, the book fell short in only one aspect and that only because Vowell set such a high bar in her superb "Assassination Vacation." In that earlier work she struck a near perfect balance between snarky post-modern humor, being informative, and a powerful emotive reverence that she plainly feels for the US and its history. In particular Vowell's discussion of Lincoln in that work will pull your heart into your throat.

In contrast, "Wordy Shipmates" doesn't quite achieve that perfect balance. To be sure, much of her linking to the modern world is evocative. Particularly arresting is her description of New Yorkers right after 9/11 lining up to do all they can to help rescue crews even as they breath ash composed at least in part of the remains of their fellow New Yorkers. Yet these digressions, while often thoughtful, at times lean too much to the snarky, even verging at times on preachy.

Let me say again, that shortcoming only exists because Vowell's own previous work was so extraordinary. Indeed, anyone with an interest in US history or culture will be missing out if they fail to book passage with "The Wordy Shipmates" in order to consider her thoughtful analysis.

Highly recommended.

Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates takes on the subject of early New England history with an insightful and sometimes amusing bent that makes it an easygoing and fun read. It's an accessible and cool book, a Gen Xer's take on how the puritan culture of seventeenth century Massachusetts and its neighbors still continues to inform our American mindset.

Shipmates takes us through the story of John Winthrop, a puritan minister who traveled to New England in 1630 aboard the ship Arbella with a group of true believers and a dream of creating a "city upon a hill" in the New World, a vision of America that we as a nation still espouse to this day. Along with Winthrop, Vowell includes several other prominent figures from the time: Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his outspoken arguments for the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state, Anne Hutchinson, a puritan woman gifted with a sharp legal mind and an even sharper tongue, as well as the Pequot and Narragansett Indians, natives who were forced to make room for the expanding European settlements.

With wit and an armchair style that makes the subject matter engaging and interesting, Vowell draws relevant parallels between the Massachusetts Bay Colony's seal with its picture of a Native American holding a banner that reads "Come Over and Help Us" and our current national policy of "helping" foreign, sovereign nations with military intervention. The writing is smart, its thesis timely without being preachy. Both entertaining and informative, The Wordy Shipmates is an interesting little primer on the origins of American political philosophy.

Sarah Vowell's audio performances never fail to entertain, whether on This American Life or in the audio version of one of her own books, such as Assassination Vacation. I can't say as much for her work in its written form. While Vowell packs her books with interesting information, they tend to lack the voice that Vowell might fill in with, well, her actual voice. Snark does abound in The Wordy Shipmates, a book that recounts the first years of the Massachussetts Bay Colony; however, archival records dominate the text. Quotations, often in block form, take up at least half of every page, leaving me feel as if I might as well have gone directly to the primary source and read the papers of Roger Williams and John Winthrop for myself.

The book has made me more informed about the goings-on of 17th-century America. Vowell acts as a knowledgeable tour guide who has the salacious details. She's been on enough museum tours to know how it should be done. But, on page, at least, this tour seems, well, wordy. I'm not sure what Vowell wants to impart unto her readers. The book could be a primer on Puritan New England, but it doesn't ask to be taken seriously as an academic text. And, while Vowell keeps her tour funny, she spends too much time in facts to classify The Wordy Shipmates as humor. Meanwhile, she indicates several parallels between Puritan New England and modern America, but does not explore them enough to make a cohesive thesis. Altogether, The Wordy Shipmates offers pleasant-enough chitchat about an area of American history that often gets glossed-over, but I wish I'd sprung for the audiobook.

I can't summarize this book effectively, so I'm just going to quote from the back:

"To this day, Americans think of themselves as a Puritan nation, but Vowell investigates what that means - and what it should mean. Who were these people who are considered the political and spiritual and moral ancestors of our nation? What was this great enterprise all about? What Vowell discovers is something far different from their uptight shoe-buckles-and-corn reputation. The people she finds are highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty. Their story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance."

And so on. Let me say that this book is absolutely hilarious. I found myself laughing regularly throughout Vowell's journey through Puritan history. She makes history that is normally dull and confusing (even for me, who loves history) into a riot of a book that I just wanted to keep reading. She also relates the past to the present and shows us a fair amount of horrifying examples where history repeats itself - or worse, when American presidents take out bits and pieces of Puritan speeches and ignore the important bits about being good to your fellow citizens. I'm not sure the book has potential for being read and understood a hundred years from now given the pop culture jokes, but it's certainly amusing now.

Sarah Vowell does a brilliant job of showing us how history is relevant while keeping us entertained and informed. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this one.

I really enjoy Sarah Vowell's work and I've often recommended Assassination Vacation , so I had pretty high expectations for The Wordy Shipmates.

At its core The Wordy Shipmates is a very interesting book. Vowell takes a look at a very specific time and space in American History and shines a light into many preconceived notions of the Puritans and their experience in early America.

What's missing from The Wordy Shipmates is Vowell herself. In Assassination Vacation, Vowell's own journey was the glue which held the book together. Here that kind of journey is mostly absent and so the book often gets stalled in the historical content.

That all said, it is a fascinating book and Vowell is immensely talented. My instinct though is that hearing her read this story would be more enjoyable and entertaining than reading it, and this comes from someone who rarely listens to audio books.

So if you're a Vowell fan, do check this book out, albeit with lower expectations as it's no Assassination Vacation.

This was a great read and I have come to expect nothing less from Sarah Vowell. She makes history come alive like a more sarcastic version of Stephen Ambrose or a civil war reenactment. Like her other books, this book will make you laugh and learn simultaneously. I will be careful before using the word Puritan ever again, these people were not quite who I thought they were!

Don't bother with Sarah Vowell's Wordy Shipmates.

I confess that I didn't buy this book because I'm particularly interested in the Puritans of either the Mayflower (Plymouth) or the later Arbella (Boston). I bought it because I love watching Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, and he clearly loves Sarah Vowell and her humor, and he strongly endorsed her writing.

I read it cover to cover over the last week. Ms. Vowell's tangential writing style amuses for the first few pages, and then just drains your ability to focus on her vaguely-conceived and poorly-organized thesis. She finally gets on topic around page 27, with the preceding 26pp discussing Thanksgiving plays by her kids, along with lengthy descriptions of outdated TV show Thanksgiving episodes from Happy Days, Mr Ed, the Brady Bunch, and others.

I was born and raised in New England, and like all of us went on all the school trips to Plymouth Rock, Boston, and Salem. The pilgrims can be a really interesting topic, and certainly there are parallels and differences with modern Christianity and politics. But Ms. Vowell spends much too much time much time discussing at length her interpretation of these connections with the contemporary Evangelicals, Ron Paul, and Ronald Reagan. This book would have been so much better with a little more research on the separatist and nonseparating Puritans and a little less time elucidating obvious parallels. Of all the many players in the book, only Winthrop, Williams, and Hutchinson are given solid psychological portraits.

Overall, I'd decribe this book as trying a little too hard to be funny, trying a little to hard to be hip and relevant, with shoddy research and lack of original thought. Save your $$$.

The Wordy Shipmates is my first Sarah Vowell book. To be perfectly honest, I have never heard of her before. Therefore, I was in for a surprise. I assumed I was going to get a straight, scholarship-filled book about the Massachusetts Bay Puritans (as opposed to the more famous Plymouth ones). Instead, I found myself in the midst of an amusing armchair history with an interest in linking the past with the present.

Vowell takes us on an amusing, yet literate, journey through the first decade or so of the Colony's first years, focusing on politics, ego and struggle. John Winthrop, the first governor of the Colony, is the central historical figure of the book. His vision of a magnificent Puritan "city upon a hill" is the central metaphor of the book, and one which Ronald Reagan exploited while he was president of the United States. Winthrop's chief adversaries are Roger Williams, the banished theologian who founded the Rhode Island Colony, Anne Hutchinson, a housewife turned unauthorized Puritan minister (also banished), and the Pequot Indians (mostly destroyed).

While amusing and informative, The Wordy Shipmates fails when it attempts to link the present with the past. Vowell succeeds at first: her initial focus on religion and strict mores strikes a powerful chord between our post-September 11th world and Puritan fanaticism. But Vowell only makes the connection briefly and fails to link the two eras passed that, save the aforementioned Reagan. This weakness becomes quite obvious in the final pages of the book. Vowell suddenly calls upon the ghost of JFK, who also used the "city upon the hill" metaphor, and then suddenly ends the book. It is almost as if Vowell was tired of trying to link her beloved Pilgrims with the present and decided to hand in her manuscript and grab some chai.

This weakness, however, did not limit my enjoyment of the book. I found the story of the Colony and its characters fascinating, and Vowell successfully brought their world to life in our own.

Sarah Vowell must really want you to read her new book in one gulp....there are no chapter delineations, so sit back and enjoy "The Wordy Shipmates." For those who have read her previous books, her comments on history have a uniquely Vowell-touch.

The Puritans, Vowell admits, have had a pretty rough historical consideration over time and she admits to having a soft spot for them. This is largely a book about the early New England settlers, of course, with John Winthrop and Roger Williams getting the most play. The rogue cast continues with John Cotton, Anne Hutchinson and some other minor additions. Bill Maher would have fun with this group, too....it's sort of a seventeenth century "Religulous", often meeting up with "Spamalot" along the way. Calvinists though many of them were, their pre-ordained divination might have come as quite a shock as they hounded Indians in Connecticut, escaped to Rhode Island and quibbled in Massachusetts. The author lets not a wretched soul off the hook.

One can imagine Sarah Vowell teaching history studies with a modern-day lingo and interpretation so acute that hers might be the most fascinating history course one ever undertakes... where her final exams would be oral but she would do more of the talking. While "Wordy Shipmates" tends to drift sometimes in its narrative as far as the breakaway theologians and teachers of the day, Vowell, nonetheless, offers up a book that is never, well, puritanical. It is informative, witty, and yes....read it in one sitting.

Sarah Vowell's very well written and clearly well researched book on the thoughts and deeds of the real Puritans who founded Boston and provided some of the foundation for our country is overwhelmed with snark. Her passion and knowledge of the topic shines through on every page, but I felt completely overwhelmed by her incredible displays of modern, urban, hipness and snark. I enjoyed the parts of the book where she focused on the history of the builing of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It's a fascinating story. Unfortunately it's almost buried in Sarah Vowell's snark. Did I mention it was snarky? She also put her own, more than a little bit left of center, political views and agenda ahead of the history.

So it's hip, snarky and leftist, but also quite informative and entertaining. If it hadn't been informative and entertaining, I would have been forced to give it a single star. It's a shame that she couldn't have written in a little less snarky a manner. I think her knowledge and passion would have made this a book worth reading for a long time to come. As it is, the extreme hip attitude will age the book as quickly as the latest hip fashions age.

Anyone out there seen Sarah Vowell on Letterman or interviewed on NPR??? Then you know she is quirky, original and smart. This book about the founding fathers is a great sequel to her book ASSASINATION VACATION! She is putting a contemporary spin on the founding fathers by inserting their point of view on some of the social issues politicized in current times. True historical facts, quotes and issues placed in a contemporary politics unveil some of the absurdity of today's political issues and at the same time humanize our founding fathers. Fans of history, fans of good humor and fans of politics will love this book. That is about everyone, right?

I've been a Sarah Vowell fanboy since even before Take the Cannoli : Stories From the New World came out several years ago. I especially loved her brand of historical tourism, as reflected in her essay on the Trail of Tears. I thought that Assassination Vacation took her book-writing to the next level. Here she was writing just for me -- taking an entire book to recount her trips to obscure historical markers, telling remarkable stories about forgotten slices of Americana and making brilliant parallels to today's state of affairs.

"The Wordy Shipmates" explores the Puritan settlement that became Boston, about ten years after the Pilgrims (a different breed of colonists) landed on Plymouth Rock. In trademark Vowell style, this is no dry history book with too many block quotes. Vowell constantly jumps through time to the present, finding parallels between 17th century religious leaders and our own 21st century politicians. She by turns finds things to both admire and revile among Puritans and modern-day American politicians alike.

Some of her historical observations are jaw-dropping. Who knew that a 1638 courtroom battle between governor John Winthrop and Protestant visionary Anne Hutchinson would be avenged in the 2004 Presidential debate, in which each participant had a descendant?

Other Vowell trademarks are muted this time around. There's less historical tourism on display than I recall there being in Assassination Vacation. Bennett Miller does not make an appearance, perhaps having been too busy with Capote during the research phase.

However, her love for both old-school Americana and the current politica