. This could be Afghanistan or Iraq, as bloodily relevant as the latest roadside bomb. May 2010. . In a seven-page account of a Standish-led raid, the clamor of evil practically rings off the page, an episode out of America’s own ‘Holinshed’s Chronicles. The end notes by Philbrick, which an academic might have shoehorned into the narrative to provide his bona fides, are here sequestered in a 50-page narrative on sources —  a rich dessert after the healthy meal of the book.”“[This] is a history that reads like tragedy, that is populated by fallible humans on all sides and that resounds with what-if moments. The quest for federal recognition by Virginia-based Indian tribes will continue. Nathaniel Philbrick’s mastery of narrative becomes clear. Philbrick has a gift for drawing telling details from the primary accounts on which much of his book is based. His Pilgrims, their descendants and those who followed them to the New World are by turns practical-minded survivors and intolerant zealots, compassionate sometimes in their treatment of American Indians and greedy often in their lust for native land. Don’t misunderstand. And about how a disadvantaged but relatively stable society was driven to desperation and finally decimated.”“Mayflower is a jaw-dropping epic of heroes and villains, bravery and bigotry, folly and forgiveness.

(Do the math: 102 passengers; 3.5 generations in a century. Book reviews. But what adds depth to the narrative is his fine sense of the ambitions that drive people in war and politics.”“Rather than paint events in patriotic black-and-white, Philbrick explores the complexities of pre-revolutionary New England in vivid and sometimes shocking colour.”“Thought you know the ending, you whip through the pages…”“Quite masterfully, Philbrick does not sink to simply good and evil distinctions in the run-up to Bunker Hill. Rather, this is balanced, objective food for thought about who we really are as a people.” “Since the release of Mayflower, Philbrick has been criticized for sympathizing too much with the Indians and going out of his way to point out the faults, even the crimes, of the Pilgrims. a signal achievement. As Mr. Philbrick points out, the national memory tends to skip from the first Thanksgiving to the Shot Heard ‘Round the World without a clue about the 150 years in between.” “We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. Not to mention the famous rock and a replica of the Mayflower. It is also “You will delight in the story and the multitude of details Philbrick offers up.”“This is popular history at its best: a taut narrative with a novelist’s touch, grounded in careful research.”“Philbrick…offers…surprising revelations and others in “Like a masterly chronicler, [Philbrick] has produced a tightly focused and richly detailed narrative that just happens to resonate with leadership lessons for all times….Philbrick is at his most vivid in conveying scenes of battle, both on the road between Boston and Concord and on the ridges of Bunker Hill. That’s essentially what the Pilgrims did when they unleashed Indian allies to take vengeance on other Indians. We have religious extremism, racial hatred, military carnage and cover-ups. Doing so requires a lot of reading between the lines (or in the case of the Indians reading between nearly nonexistent lines), but informed speculation—coaxing meaning out of inert data—is part of the job of writing history.” “Engaging and enthralling . . I’m hauling my kids off to see that New England re-creation of the 1627 Pilgrim settlement. . .’“Philbrick has performed an important and timely service in reminding Americans that our forefathers were once undocumented, desperate and at times even unscrupulous.” “For history enthusiasts, Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower is the season’s must-read.” “Engaging and fast-paced. '” “[V]astly compelling. . “Philbrick guides us beautifully through Revolutionary Boston, with the Battle of Bunker Hill as his story’s grand climax — and with today’s global events enlivening the old tale.”“Masterly narrative… Philbrick tells the complex story superbly… gripping book…”“A masterpiece of narrative and perspective…This is not only…the greatest American story. The defeat of Custer’s Seventh Cavalry near the Little Bighorn River on June 25, 1876, has been so painstakingly chronicled and relentlessly mythologized that it’s hard to imagine anyone could find … That’s not the only timely lesson from America’s early days.

. [He] seamlessly weaves into his tale much of the new understanding of native people, the environment, the impact of disease, and other topics gleaned from the previous generation of historical scholarship. Mayflower is a fine book in every way: It is packed with illustrations, not in a printer-dictated sheaf, but right in the text where the reader wants them. . creates a surprising picture and argument about the antecedents of American life.” Mr. Philbrick has written a fair-minded, thoughtful analysis of how the Plymouth colonists strongly influenced the future of America. . The Last Stand Nathaniel Philbrick Review by Edward Morris. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is a historical, non-fiction novel written by American author and Nantucket maritime historian Nathaniel Philbrick.With his knowledge of maritime history, Philbrick masterfully combines the two known written accounts from survivors of the Nantucket whaleship, the Essex, that was sunk by an angry sperm whale.

Because those costly failures are an essential part of the story–a part we dare not ignore. Philbrick masterfully portrays the sometimes-flawed motivations and aspirations of both hardcore patriots and loyalists as everyday heroes emerge throughout the pages of Bunker Hill.”“By lifting to the forefront the myriad personalities surrounding the nascent stages of the American Revolution, and treating the womb of insurrection, Boston, as a character herself, Philbrick places the human condition at the center of the story, while at the same time adhering to a high standard of factuality, backed with a preponderance of sources and notes.”“Bunker Hill does a superb job setting the stage for the Siege of Boston and the climatic action that took place on Breed’s Hill…Fortunately excellent, clearly readable and simple maps are provided.